Our NFL Week 4 highlights and lowlights are here. It started in London with Desmond Ridder and his Atlanta Falcons struggling big time in a loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Back in the United States, the Denver Broncos rebounded from last week’s disastrous outing to come back from three touchdowns behind to defeat the Chicago Bears. The San Francisco 49ers also won their 14th consecutive regular season game as Brock Purdy and Christian McCaffrey made history in a 38-16 win over Arizona.
Other highlights include Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen doing his thing in a dominant win over the Miami Dolphins. In that very same game, star Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White went down with an Achilles’ injury. Meanwhile, the Dallas Cowboys absolutely handed it to the New England Patriots Sunday afternoon.
These are among the NFL Week 4 highlights and lowlights.
Highlight: San Francisco 49ers win 14th consecutive
The Arizona Cardinals made it close for a minute Sunday afternoon at Levi’s Stadium. But in the end, San Francisco was able to win by the score of 35-16 for its 14th consecutive regular season win. Records were also broken in Northern California.
Brock Purdy completed 20-of-21 passes for 283 yards with two total touchdowns and zero interceptions. He broke the 49ers’ single-game record for completion percentage. Purdy has now won each of his first nine regular-season starts. Meanwhile, Christian McCaffrey went off with four total touchdowns. He tied for the second most in single-game 49ers history. The dude was on one.
CMC is now on pace for 2,550 total yards and 30 touchdowns. Those are some video game numbers. San Francisco heads into Week 5 against the Dallas Cowboys on an absolute roll. It’s that simple.
Lowlight: Las Vegas Raiders destroyed by former star
Khalil Mack ate Raiders rookie quarterback Aidan O’Connell alive Sunday afternoon with a whopping six sacks. It’s the second-most in single-game NFL history. Replacing an injured Jimmy Garoppolo, O’Connell had absolutely no chance.
Despite head coach Brandon Staley making yet another questionable late-game decision, the Chargers were able to come out on top by the score of 24-17 for their second consecutive win. Meanwhile, Vegas last for the third consecutive time after opening the season with a win over Denver.
Highlight: Denver Broncos rebound in a big way
A lot of people wondered how the Broncos would rebound after yielding 70 points to the Miami Dolphins last week. Taking on a Bears team that lost 13 consecutive heading into NFL Week 4, it did not start out swimmingly for Denver in the Windy City.
The Broncos found themselves down 28-7 after Justin Fields’ fourth passing touchdown of the game with roughly four minutes remaining in the third quarter. That’s when something turned on for Sean Payton’s squad.
Wilson led Denver on two touchdown-scoring drives, both culminating in scores from the veteran quarterback. Then, with the Broncos down by a touchdown and about midway through the final stanza, Jonathan Cooper scooped and scored on a Fields fumble.
Wil Lutz would complete the comeback with a 51-yard field goal to give the Broncos their first win of the season. Credit to Payton, Wilson and Co. for this rebound performance.
Related: NFL Week 4 quarterback rankings
Lowlight: Desmond Ridder doesn’t seem to be it
This young Atlanta Falcons quarterback went across the pond and did not paint his organization in the best of lights in front of the Brits. Ridder threw two interceptions in a 23-7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. That included an ugly pick six into the hands of Jags defensive back Darius Williams. It was bad. Really, really bad.
You simply have to see the field better than that. Ridder telegraphed that this pass was going to Drake London. It was an easy play for Williams to make. Ridder has now thrown three touchdowns against three interceptions in four games and is averaging just over 180 passing yards per outing. That’s not going to cut it.
Related: NFL Week 4 power rankings
Highlight: C.J. Stroud continues to make history
It was just last week that this rookie No. 2 pick helped Houston to an upset over the Jacksonville Jaguars for their first win of the season. Stroud continued his excellent play against the Pittsburgh Steelers during NFL Week 4, completing 16-of-30 passes for 306 yards with two touchdowns and zero interceptions. That included a 52-yard touchdown pass to Nico Collins late in the third quarter to put the game away.
Houston moved to 2-2 on the season via the 30-6 victory over a hapless Steelers team. Through four games, Stroud is now completing 62% of his passes for 1,212 yards with six touchdowns and zero interceptions. This represents the second-most passing yards for a QB through four NFL starts in the history of the league. Yeah, this dude is the real deal.
Lowlight: Derek Carr not 100% in making surprise start
New Orleans Saints star quarterback Derek Carr was a surprise start during NFL Week 4 despite suffering a shoulder injury in last week’s loss to the Green Bay Packers. It was readily apparent that Carr wasn’t able to get the ball down the field.
In what ended up being an ugly 26-9 home loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carr completed 23-of-37 passes for a mere 127 yards without a touchdown or an interception. How bad was it for the dinking-and-dunking? Alvin Kamara caught 13-of-14 targets for a mere 33 yards. Carr had noted ahead of the game that he wouldn’t play if it were to hurt the team. With Jameis Winston on the sideline, that’s exactly what we saw on Sunday as the Saints dropped their second consecutive game following a 2-0 start to the season.
Related: NFL Playoff and Super Bowl predictions
Highlight: Josh Allen’s return to form for the Buffalo Bills
A lot was made of Allen’s four-turnover performance in Buffalo’s season-opening loss to the New York Jets. Well, that now seems like a thing of the past. Taking on the undefeated Miami Dolphins in NFL Week 4’s top game, Allen completely outplayed NFL MVP favorite Tua Tagovailoa in what was a dominating 48-20 Bills win.
The veteran completed 21-of-25 passes for 320 yards with four touchdowns and zero interceptions. Allen’s day opened with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Gabe Davis on the Bills’ opening drive.
Allen then tossed three consecutive touchdowns to star wide receiver Stefon Diggs, one going for 55 yards as Buffalo doubled up Miami late in the first half. Since that opening game, Allen has thrown eight touchdowns against one interception. That seems good.
Lowlight: Injuries on top of injuries
We hate to see what happened to Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White Sunday against Miami. The All-Pro cornerback went down with a non-contact leg injury. As he was carted off the field, White was seen with tears in his eyes. He was almost immediately ruled out for the remainder of the game with an Achilles’ injury.
“Wins and losses are part of the game, but to see one of your boys go down is tough,” Bills defensive back Micah Hyde said after the game. It’s not yet known exactly what type of Achilles’ injury White suffered. But things are not looking good in this regard.
Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett also went down during NFL Week 4, finding himself dealing with a knee injury after a sack. The worst part of this is that Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada called a drop back on that play despite it being fourth-and-one and with running back Najee Harris averaging five yards per rush on the day. As with White, there are no further updates on Pickett’s status. But it’s not great.
Meanwhile, Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins suffered a rib fracture in his team’s disastrous 27-3 loss to the Tennessee Titans. The expectation is that Higgins will miss multiples of weeks.
Lowlight: What was that, New England Patriots?
Bill Belichick was handed his worst loss as the Patriots’ head coach during NFL Week 4, losing by the score of 38-3. Quarterback Mac Jones turned the ball over three times with two of them resulting directly in Cowboys touchdowns. In the end, Belichick pulled Jones in favor of Bailey Zappe in the third quarter.
At 1-3 for the second consecutive season, one has to wonder where the Patriots go from here. Belichick isn’t accustomed to these types of struggles. Jones might be pulled for good. Meanwhile, New England looks more like a cellar dwellar than an actual playoff contenders.