That’s A Lot Of Laundry
As I sat watching the games on Sunday it felt like there was a lot more yellow than we normally saw. We are used to refs deciding that the start of the season is the time to get the flags out early and often but this seemed more than normal. So I went to have a look. The record for the number of accepted penalties in one weekend is 298 set in Week 2 of 2015. By the end of the Falcons game, there had been 271 accepted penalties, good for second-most since records started in 2009. Coupled with some more than questionable behaviour from a couple of refs towards players and this certainly was the week that the refs decided they wanted to be noticed.
You join me today, Tuesday, on Lamar watch, a surprise to none of you I am sure. After sitting Lamar for the second half of the Titans’ game following what looked an innocuous enough ankle twist against the Titans, Jesse Minter did not fill the room with hope when he reported that he “really [didn’t] think it would be a crazy long-term” injury. Despite Lamar being reported as day-to-day, that’s enough for me to worry for the next 7 days, especially considering how the Ravens looked in the second half, and the Falcons last night. Joy!
Anyway, as always there is an absolute avalanche of stuff to get into, I’m never going to be able to cover it all so I have cherry-picked what I think are the most deserving reflections from Week 4.
Just Trust The Process
Are the Panthers actually building something? It certainly looked that way on Sunday Night Football. I know that the Lions’ Defence is nothing special, but it has been a while since Bryce Young looked that much like a good NFL quarterback. Admittedly, having Tetairoa McMillan can help with that. His line of 14 catches for 192 yards and 2 touchdowns was the best we have seen from him thus far in his young career.
I wrote in the last First Down that this could be a get right game for the Lions, after watching the Panthers fall to the Browns last weekend. Especially as they were down Jalen Coker. Ultimately though, I was incorrect. The lack of Coker just meant that Bryce looked to McMillan more often, and the Lions’ Defence didn’t seem as if they could do anything to stop him. Arguably the final scoreline undersells just what a good performance this was from the Panthers, although the Lions could have been forgiven for not expecting quite the link-up between Young and McMillan, considering the week before that garnered 2 catches for 17 yards.
Detroit must start to be worried now. Their Offense is full of young stars, and the Defence has a couple, but overall this is a team who is struggling to stop anyone right now. They are going to need to find some sort of a fix soon, or this season will get away from them before it even begins. Players the quality of Jahmyr Gibbs and Amon-Ra St Brown deserve better than this.
Nobody Was Worried, Right?
Not for the last time this week will the importance of a week, and some self-reflection, be so clearly important. They say it is a week to week league, and these are the games that illustrate that so spectacularly. There cannot be many of us who expected the 3-0 Bills to go down to the Patriots, certainly not in a shoot-out. 29-26, with one of the best catches you will ever see from Efton Chism to clinch the win (yes I know there was an interception from Craig Woodson afterwards) has got to have Drake Maye sleeping a little better than he did 7 days ago.
There have been some concerns about the Bills’ defence thus far through the season but I am more concerned about the Bills’ sudden tendency to turn the ball over. 7 lost balls in 2 weeks is more than a little worrying. In games that are going to be tight, it is these sorts of things that will swing games. The Bills were lucky last week that the Chargers didn’t punish them for their profligacy, the Patriots weren’t going to make the same mistake. Perhaps the AFC East won’t be the walkover that the Bills were expecting going into last weekend.
Duval Believe It?
I promise not to write about the Jags every week, I may give it a rest after this week. Although if they continue to look as good as they do it won’t be easy. This was a game that was about the defensive performance. The Bengals outgained the Jags by a healthy margin but ultimately it didn’t matter. Would the outcome have been different had Chase and Higgins remained in the game? Who knows. All I know for now is that the Jags are 3-1 and looking every part the team who will try to drag the AFC through Duval.
Liam Coen has the Jags playing with an identity and at this point, none of what we are seeing seems fluky. This is a team who knows what they want to do and, at the moment, are able to do it. Aside from the Chiefs, the Jags may be the team in the AFC nobody will want to face come the sharp end of the season. At this point I’d rather the Bills.
As for the Bengals? Well 23 yards on the ground highlights where this game was lost. It is all well and good Joe Burrow throwing for 428 yards, but if that isn’t complemented by an effective ground game then the job will always be tougher. After a good start to the season they now sit 2-2 and need to take stock. The offensive line still looks ropey and their defence is back to being inconsistent. Were those first two weeks just a fever dream?
Time To Panic In Houston?
This Texans team was supposed to be ready to take the next step. Instead of that, after 4 weeks, we are sat looking at possibly the best 0-4 team we have seen in a while. C.J. Stroud and the offense have looked good in flashes, and definitely better this week with Nico Collins back, but it still wasn’t enough. This team was supposed to be one of the AFC’s main contenders and at this point, that seems beyond their reach.
For fans, the frustrating part is that they should be. The defence is one of the best in the league, it has the players to be the best. The rebuilt offensive line has yet to gel to be any real improvement on last year. In fact it is worse than last year in pass protection, with Stroud being sacked at a higher rate than last year. The 29th ranked ground game from last year is actually performing worse as well, down from 3.9 yards per carry to 3.5. Until there is some sort of remedy to these problems I don’t know how this gets fixed. Texans’ fans can officially start to worry.
Other Noteworthy Points
Every now and then we get an insane game from CeeDee Lamb and this weekend was the first this year. 17 catches for 189 yards and 1 touchdown set the Cowboys on their way to a win against the aforementioned Texans. That is a career high in catches for CeeDee who becomes only the fourth player to record 17 catches, over 180 yards and a touchdown in a game in the NFL. It looks at this point that CeeDee and Dak are hell-bent on dragging this Cowboys’ team to the playoffs in spite of other deficiencies on their roster. With the Eagles dropping a winnable game against the Rams, I would argue it is advantage Cowboys after 4 weeks.
And then we have Puka Nacua. After sitting out the past 2 weeks Puka returned against a wavering Eagles team and slotted right back in. 9 catches, 125 yards and a rushing touchdown later and the Rams are back to 2-2. They were helped out rather a lot by some very questionable Eagles play-calling, but don’t let that distract from just how important to this team Puka is. They are just a different beast when he is healthy. If he can sort out this availability issue that seems to bug him periodically, there is no reason he can’t go on to have a legendary career.
Four weeks down and just three unbeaten teams remain, the Chiefs, 49ers and, somewhat remarkably, the Vikings. Kansas City being here surprises absolutely nobody, while San Francisco look every bit the contender we thought they might be, with Brock Purdy playing some excellent football. Minnesota are the odd ones out. They are 4-0 despite failing to score a touchdown in two of those games, something no NFL team has done through four games in more than a century. There are plenty of ways to win football games and apparently the Vikings are intent on trying all of the weird ones. I am still not entirely convinced by them, but at some point 4-0 is 4-0.
Monday Night Football
Holy crap, the Falcons look like the real deal. What a difference a couple of weeks, and a quarterback, make. Since Michael Penix returned, Atlanta have put up 35 and 45 points in consecutive weeks and suddenly look like the offense we thought we would see coming into the year. Penix himself didn’t do anything crazy, going 15/20 for 223 yards and a touchdown, because the Falcons simply ran all over the Saints.
Bijan Robinson finished with 145 yards and 2 touchdowns, Brian Robinson added another 62 and 3 scores, and Atlanta finished with 207 yards on the ground. That is going to make life very easy for Penix if they can keep anything close to this up. After an 0-2 start the Falcons are now 2-2 and tied for the lead in the NFC South. As a Ravens fan who gets to watch this offense turn up next weekend, I could probably have done without seeing quite how quickly Atlanta have figured things out.
…And Breathe!
4 weeks in and now it really feels like the heat is starting to get turned up. We are basically a quarter of the way through the regular season and it definitely feels like we know who the top teams are, and who is fighting for the No. 1 seed. I feel a little sorry for Miami. They entered the year, I would imagine, expecting a relatively easy journey to the first pick in next year’s Draft. What they have been met with is a wave of ineptitude from other teams that leaves the Dolphins currently with the fifth pick!
Anyway, that will do for Week 4. At this rate I am going to need twice as many words by the time we get to November. For now I am off to spend the rest of the week refreshing Lamar injury updates and trying to convince myself that watching what Atlanta did last night hasn’t made me considerably more worried about Sunday. See you at the weekend.