What an exciting week four! We saw jaw-dropping touchdown catches, an upset in Philadelphia, the Jets getting their first interception for the first time in almost two years, and three other teams remain undefeated after four games. The first Sunday of October delivered surprising results and some exciting divisional matchups. So, let’s take a look at what stood out to start the month.
Winners: Ben Johnson
Chicago stunned viewers with their total destruction of Philadelphia last Monday night. Many analysts believed the Bears wouldn’t do that to the Jets yesterday. The common thought was if Chicago won, it would be close. The Bears proved more people wrong in their dismantling of New York on Sunday afternoon.
Instead of riding the hot-hand at quarterback with Case Keenum, head coach Ben Johnson wisely reverted to top backup Tyson Bagent since he was back to full health after suffering a concussion in practice two weeks ago. Johnson’s game-plan with and without Bagent was excellent start to finish.
Chicago scorched the Jets defense in the first quarter. After a bizarre turnover on downs, the Bears scored a touchdown the next possession. Chicago mercilessly ran the ball against the improved New York defense, and ended the first half with a double digit lead.
The Bears did more in the second half despite giving up nine more points. The Jets offense scored a touchdown when quarterback Geno Smith found Isaiah Williams for 58 yards, but that was their only big play of the game. It was also the last possession New York had as Chicago went on a masterful eight and a half minute final drive to close out the game. The Bears offense ended the game with more first downs than the Jets offense had plays.
Chicago’s defense sacked Smith three times and limited New York’s passing attack to 61 yards before the big play. Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen has more to work with this season because of Johnson’s focus on the offense and clock management. ESPN Insights backs this up with a stat featured on Sportscenter with Scott Van Pelt late Sunday night stating Chicago had the fourth highest play differential in a game since 1970, and the best first down differential in franchise history. The Bears ran 57 more plays and had 27 more first downs than the Jets. Game preparation has improved and is better even on shorter weeks. It’s clear Ben Johnson was the perfect hire to rejuvenate this franchise.
New England Patriots
After their trip to Super Bowl 60, it is clear New England is struggling to regain their 2025-26 form. While there have been high moments, the Patriots hadn’t played a good game…until Sunday. It came at what was possibly the most important week of the season as New England earned a needed win in Buffalo.
Head coach Mike Vrabel had everyone ready to play. The Patriots scored two touchdowns on their first three drives of the game. Despite forcing some turnovers in the first half, the undefeated Bills led by three points. Vrabel outsmarted rookie head coach Joe Brady in the second half and frustrated Buffalo’s offense.
New England scored a touchdown to start the third quarter and shut down the Bills offense until mid-fourth. Once Buffalo got the lead back, the Patriots offense wasted no time. Quarterback Drake Maye led a perfect scoring drive capped off with a one-handed touchdown grab by receiver Efton Chism III. Maye then converted a bold two point conversion to keep the lead at three. That forced the Bills to either play for a tie to reach overtime or win the game within the final 62 seconds.
Buffalo’s offense couldn’t score again and the Bills lost their first home game in their new stadium and first game of the season to the rival Patriots. Not only did New England win a crucial game to get them back to .500 and one game out of first place in the AFC East, they won without star cornerback Christian Gonzalez playing a snap. New England’s other two rivals lost, keeping the east a two team race the Patriots can focus on. One week in the NFL can change a lot for any given team.
Kenneth Walker III
There wasn’t a more needed and better addition for any team in last offseason’s free agency like runningback and reigning Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III was for Kansas City. The Chiefs struggled to find a crucial playmaker the last few off-seasons who can take pressure off elite quarterback Patrick Mahomes II. General manager Brett Veach has come up empty in the last few drafts, and most of the speedy receivers signed in free agency either can’t stay healthy or have hands like a burled oak table when the football gets near them. Veach had a superstar runningback land into his lap this off-season. Kansas City is now the AFC’s best team because of Kenneth Walker III’s play.
The Chiefs played a slugfest Sunday in Las Vegas. The Raiders team many are used to watching every year has become dangerous and not dreadful. Without Kenneth Walker III, Kansas City would have lost. The Chiefs from the last couple seasons might have done enough to get a field goal and a one point lead near the end of the game, but Las Vegas probably would have scored a game winning touchdown to stay undefeated. With Walker III, Kansas City took over the game and set the Raiders on their heels.
The most pivotal moments in the Chiefs win were when Kenneth Walker III scored two straight touchdowns and gave Kansas City their first and only double digit lead of the game. Walker finished the game with 22 rushes for 177 yards and two touchdowns. According to Yahoo Sports, he became the third ever runningback to rush for 170 yards at least twice in his team’s first four games of a season. Head coach Andy Reid was careful in the first of two games against Las Vegas to use Walker against a revived defense. When Reid did go to Kenneth Walker III, there was no doubt who the best player was on the field.
League MVP has unfortunately turned into a quarterback award and it shouldn’t. There is a great argument that the NFL MVP frontrunner should be Kenneth Walker III. Kansas City is nowhere close to undefeated or even at a winning record without him.
Carolina Panthers
Believe it or not, this could be the year the NFC South playoff race isn’t filled with mediocre at best, sub-.500 teams. New Orleans will be a threat to win the division most of the season, but Carolina finally looks like the playoff team many longed to see with head coach Dave Canales and franchise star quarterback Bryce Young. Sunday night’s impressive home win against Detroit showed more proof this team could go far and do damage in the playoffs.
The Panthers offense demolished a terrible Lions defense with a 450+ yard performance. Even when Detroit’s defense played well, Young completed crucial passes to receiver Tetairoa McMillan to seal the win.
On defense, Carolina suffered more injuries during the game and played without both starting cornerbacks. The Panthers defensive line stepped up and blocked at least four of quarterback Jared Goff’s passes, limited multi-faceted runningback Jahmyr Gibbs to 46 yards on 15 carries, and forced the juggernaut Lions offense into multiple turnovers on downs.
Many viewers didn’t believe or know if the Panthers could keep up their progress after last season’s late surge. It appears the Carolina team that started to put it together last season is a legitimate playoff threat in the NFC. Hopefully the rest of the south is on notice and actually plays good football outside of one team.
Losers: Dante Stills
Field goals are pivotal points in an American football game because one defining moment can occur for either team. Usually viewers see the team attempting the field goal as the one with the most pressure to mess up and make a terrible mistake. Once in a while, it happens with a team defending against the kick, and it can lead to serious changes. Arizona had one Sunday in New York and it cost them their second win of the season.
In one of the biggest changes during an NFL game this season, New York’s field goal on a fourth and eight was called back because of a holding penalty on Cardinals defensive lineman Dante Stills. Many argued online it was not a penalty for various reasons, but irrefutable video proof shows Stills guilty of holding onto and dragging an offensive lineman towards him. The penalty gave the Giants a fresh set of downs, and they went on to score a touchdown and re-gain the lead. New York never trailed again after this penalty.
Dante Stills isn’t the sole reason Arizona lost, but he is the embodiment of how the Cardinals remain a sloppy team while still trying to get things right. A third year veteran shouldn’t make egregious mistakes like that on a pivotal play. Arizona is 1-3, and instead of talking about how the Cardinals somehow remain in the NFC West divisional race, analysts are left wondering how soon rookie quarterback Carson Beck will make his debut if Arizona falls any further in the overall playoff race. American football is a team sport, and it can take just one player to screw everything up.
Green Bay Packers, even in a win
If you were forced to watch Green Bay’s ugly win in Tampa Bay on FOX, you at least deserve financial compensation. That was a game no one wanted to win and fewer wanted to watch. Both Bay teams are awful this season for various reasons, but unfortunately, neither team wanted to settle for a tie and go their separate ways.
At this point, there’s not much else to say about the Buccaneers. Yes, rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels was ok in his NFL debut. Unfortunately for Daniels, he was a rookie in his first game. There were mistakes he probably shouldn’t have made in a winnable game. It’s not as if the other 52 Tampa players stepped up anyway.
The Packers are a legitimate cause for concern. After an ugly 1-1 start to the season, Green Bay was thumped at home in week three in Michael Penix Jr.’s first game back with Atlanta. There should have been much more urgency built up over a week and a half heading into Sunday. The Packers not only lacked it after the second touchdown, but they were fortunate to come away with a win after a turnover filled fourth quarter. The Buccaneers’ turnover on downs on their final possession of the game cemented how Green Bay is both lucky and not a serious playoff contending team.
Much has been said about head coach Todd Bowles getting fired in Florida, but Matt LaFleur is on the hot seat too. It would not be surprising if both teams wind up going for full re-builds after the regular season ends.
Vance Joseph
Last week this site raved about the play of Talanoa Hufanga and how he can be the center-piece of an elite defense if he stays healthy. Turns out that’s going to happen after Denver lost both their starting cornerbacks to injuries in a disastrous loss at San Francisco.
Like most of the last full calendar year of games watching the Broncos attempt to play football, Sean Payton’s team played a slow, dismal first half. The biggest development of a 3-3 tie after two quarters was an Achilles injury to defensive player of the year winner and all-pro cornerback Pat Surtain II. Riley Moss also left because of injury, and that left Denver vulnerable in the passing game despite the 49ers having an extremely thin receiving core. The advantage still should have been with defensive coordinator Vance Joseph.
That was not the case. San Francisco flipped a switch and scored three straight touchdowns in the second half. A special teams fumble leading to the first score aside, Joseph couldn’t stop anything Kyle Shanahan’s offense ran without their two starting corners. Quarterback Brock Purdy, runningback Christian McCaffrey and tight-end George Kittle bullied the Broncos defense. Denver led the league in redzone scoring defense last year. San Francisco scored two of their three touchdowns in the redzone with little resistance.
It’s fair to say the Broncos loss can be blamed on injuries, but San Francisco didn’t stretch the field most of the game even with the starting cornerbacks out. Kittle had a 56 yard touchdown catch and run after he beat all of Denver’s defense (including Hufanga) by himself. It’s probably an off-game for Joseph’s unit, but bad performances like that could be a reason the Broncos miss the playoffs.
Miami Dolphins
There are five winless teams at the end of week four. Of the five, the most unfortunate one has to be Miami. Despite playing passionate football, the Dolphins seemingly cannot do enough to steal or seal a win.
Thankfully this team is not the 2007 team that went 1-15 (this website kept up with their games that year. Trust us, it was ugly), but it might not fare better because there’s a severe lack of talent on the roster. To make things worse, most of the talented players landed on IR before October.
Sunday was another strange low for Miami. Minnesota won their second game of their undefeated stretch without scoring a touchdown. It’s the first time since the 1923 Chicago Cardinals any NFL team has done that. The Vikings scored 15 points and could have scored a touchdown at the end, but decided to down the ball and run out the rest of the clock.
However, the game was almost different and the Dolphins almost pulled out a win. Receiver Chris Bell beat Minnesota’s secondary and scored a long yardage touchdown…until it turned out the ref flagged him for stepping out of bounds before catching the ball. Miami punted the next play.
Head coach Jeff Hafley is doing a great job of keeping morale in the locker room. There are good players on the Dolphins roster, but even one or two mistakes m make Miami a serious candidate for 0-17.
