Let’s take a trip around the action from Sunday’s games in the NFL on our weekly NFL Snap Count report. We’ll give you the stories within the stories from the day’s games each Sunday.
Jason Voorhees signs with the Cleveland Browns?
It is almost Halloween, but Cleveland Browns tight end David Njoku might have produced frightful reactions when he arrived for the Browns game against the Baltimore Ravens.
Njoku, who was burned on his hands and face during a household incident, was inactive for the game but arrived in Cleveland in a full face mask, looking like famous slasher film villain Jason Voorhees of the Friday the 13th movie franchise.
In all seriousness, we hope Njoku has a quick recovery. His team, the Browns, lost 28-3 to Baltimore as starting quarterback DeShaun Watson missed the game with a shoulder injury.
Chicago Bears hibernation continues in embarrassing loss to Denver
The Chicago Bears continue to find ways to lose and things are getting worse in the Windy City.
After leading the hapless Denver Broncos 28-7 midway through the third quarter, the Bears couldn’t move the ball on offense and quarterback Justin Fields fumbled on a bootleg to give up a defensive touchdown that tied the game at 28.
Denver scored 24 unanswered points to beat the Bears 31-28 at Soldier Field.
Head coach Matt Eberflus will endure the wrath of the Chicago media as he made an absolutely brutal call on 4th-and-1 with just over two minutes remaining in the game. Instead of kicking a makable field goal, Eberflus went for it and the Bears were stuffed at the line, turning the ball over to the Broncos.
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“When you’re 0-4, no one’s done the job well enough,” Eberflus said when asked about the Bears terrible start. “That’s just the facts. It’s a results business, and we have to do a better job collectively as a group. Again, we’re working hard to do that. And I thought the guys put a better step forward, coaches included, and players, of putting our players in position and then executing. I thought that was better today.”
The Bears spent a ton of money on free agents in the offseason and traded for wide receiver Chase Claypool, who was inactive due to ongoing attitude issues.
Without fully healthy Joe Burrow, Bengals aren’t a playoff team
I really don’t think the Cincinnati Bengals (1-3) will make the playoffs this season and it has everything to do with Joe Burrow.
Since Burrow injured his calf at the beginning of training camp, the Bengals have been completely unrecognizable. While they had a nice win against the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football last week, their offense is still MIA and it’s because Burrow is not playing like himself.
In Sunday’s loss at Tennessee, Burrow finished 20-of-30 for 165 yards and no touchdowns. The frustration with the Bengals’ high-powered offense not hitting on all cylinders erupted in the locker room after, with Ja’Marr Chase openly complaining about not getting the ball.
The Bengals rank last in touchdowns through four weeks with just four. Cincinnati’s defense, which has improved despite the loss of Jessie Bates in free agency, is inconsistent at best. Even though the Bengals started 2022 at 1-3 as well, they scored 94 points in four games last season and this season they’ve mustered only 49.
Coach Zac Taylor needs to find answers quickly if the Bengals want to play back into the early playoff picture, perhaps for a wild card berth in the stacked AFC.
C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans one of the season’s great stories so far
The Houston Texans (2-2) are in the middle of a complete rebuild and they started by taking Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud in the first round of last spring’s NFL Draft. That decision looks like a stroke of brilliance as the Texans sit at .500 through four weeks.
The Texans evened their record with a 30-6 throttling of the Pittsburgh Steelers where Stroud finished 16-of-30 for 306 yards and two touchdowns.
Stroud has 1,212 passing yards this season and surpassed Andrew Luck (1,208) for the second-most passing yards ever by a player in his first four career games. Only Cam Newton (1,386) had more.
Stroud is also taking care of the ball. He’s the second quarterback in NFL history with no interceptions in his first four career starts (minimum 30 attempts in each start), joining Gardner Minshew (2019).
Rookie head coach DeMeco Ryans and his team have been hammered by injuries on both sides of the ball but continue to compete. Houston is one of those teams that could get better as they return players from injuries. They might not make the playoffs, but if they continue to follow their field leader Stroud, they might factor in the AFC race anyway.
Khalil Mack is the Las Vegas Raiders boogeyman
Out of all the games I’ve watched covering the NFL the past seven years, Khalil Mack’s outing against the Raiders was the most dominating defensive performance I’ve ever watched.
Mack single-handedly beat up his old team and their hapless offense, recording six sacks in the 24-17 win. Mack now shares the record for the second-highest number of sacks in a single game since the official record keeping began in 1982. He is tied with Adrian Clayborn (2017), Fred Dean (1983), Derrick Thomas (1998) and Osi Umenyiora (2007) who all achieved six sacks in a single game. The only player who surpassed this record is Derrick Thomas with seven sacks, on November 11 1990.
Mack becomes the second player to record multiple games with five or more sacks. He previously achieved this feat with the Raiders on December 13, 2015. Pro Football Hall of Famer Derrick Thomas is the only player to accomplish this.
The Raiders’ offensive line will have nightmares remembering what No. 52 was able to do to them Sunday at SoFi Stadium.
San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys on collision course
Next Sunday night, two of the best teams in the NFC — the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys — will face off in a prime time game sure to please football fans.
The 49ers (4-0) face the Cowboys (3-1) on Sunday Night Football for supremacy in the conference. Even though Philadelphia is also undefeated, these two teams, in my opinion are the two best.
Hollywood-story Brock Purdy is coming off a day where he hit 95% of his passes (20-of-21) with two touchdowns in the 49ers 35-16 win over Arizona, and the San Francisco defense continues to dominate its competition.
Dallas handed New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick his career-worst loss, 38-3, at AT&T Stadium on Sunday. Thanks to two defensive touchdowns, the Cowboys recovered nicely from their loss in Arizona last week.
Extra Points
- San Francisco’s Christian McCaffrey is the fourth player in the Super Bowl era with at least 70 rushing yards, three rushing touchdowns, 70 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown in a game. McCaffrey tallied 177 scrimmage yards (106 rushing, 71 receiving) and four touchdowns (three rushing, one receiving) in the 49ers’ 35-16 win over Arizona.
- Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen completed 21 of 25 pass attempts for 320 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions for a 158.3 rating and added one rushing touchdown in the Bills’ 48-20 win over Miami. Allen is the second player in NFL history with at least 300 passing yards, four touchdown passes, one rushing touchdown and a 158.3 passer rating – the highest attainable mark – in a game, joining Aaron Rodgers (Week 7, 2019).
- Dolphins rookie running back De’Von Achane had 120 scrimmage yards (101 rushing, 19 receiving) and two rushing touchdowns on Sunday in the loss at Buffalo. Achane, who has four rushing touchdowns and two receiving touchdowns this season, is the fourth player in NFL history with six touchdowns through his first three career games, joining Kareem Hunt (2017), Billy Simms (1980) and Dutch Sternaman (1920).
- Tampa Bay safety Antoine Winfield Jr. registered his second sack of the season, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery in the Buccaneers’ 26-9 win at New Orleans. Winfield Jr. is the fourth defensive back since 1982, when the individual sack became an official statistic, with at least two sacks in each of his first four career seasons.