This Week
Efton Chism had five career catches before Sunday. With 1:50 left in Orchard Park, New England trailing 26-21 and Buffalo still unbeaten, Drake Maye threw deep toward the end zone. Chism, an undrafted receiver working one-on-one against a cornerback making his first career start, went up with one hand and came down with it. Twenty-three yards, touchdown. The two-point try made it 29-26, the Patriots intercepted Josh Allen on the next series, and a late Maye completion to Hunter Henry let them run out the clock on the Bills' first loss of the season.
That catch is the spine of Week 4, and the quarterback who threw it is most of the reason. Maye finished second in MVP voting last season and spent September near the bottom of the league in passer rating. On Sunday he was 22-of-37 for 269 yards and three touchdowns, two of them to Romeo Doubs, and he led New England in rushing with 54 yards. It wasn't clean: his interception came off a Doubs bobble and he lost a fumble. But Allen managed only four scramble yards, and the Patriots finally turned red-zone trips into touchdowns, which had been the emphasis all week. "Nobody blinked when we were over there on the sideline and they scored and went up 26-21," Maye said afterward.
The result also sorted the league. With Buffalo losing and Kansas City winning in Las Vegas, only three teams are unbeaten: San Francisco, Kansas City, and Minnesota. Five are winless: Houston, the Chargers, Miami, Tampa Bay, and Tennessee. A month in, the top and the bottom have pulled away from everybody else.
Maye didn't treat it like a turnaround. He said Mike Vrabel's message to the team is "Don't ride the roller coaster," and at 2-2 he added that he still "left some stuff out there today." Here's the rest of the week, starting with the three teams that haven't lost.
Three perfect, five winless. San Francisco, Kansas City, and Minnesota are 4-0. Houston, the Chargers, Miami, Tampa Bay, and Tennessee are 0-4. Only one team has ever made the playoffs after starting 0-4, the 1992 Chargers. Houston and Tennessee play each other next week, so at least one name comes off that list.
Purdy's clean pocket. San Francisco beat Denver 24-14 and became the first team since the 2005 Colts to start 4-0 without allowing a sack. That came against a Broncos defense that had the fifth-most sacks in NFL history last season. Brock Purdy was 19-of-30 for 218 yards and two touchdowns, and George Kittle turned a late tight end screen into the clinching score. The cost: Kyle Juszczyk hurt his knee, and Denver lost Pat Surtain II to a non-contact ankle injury.
Kansas City wins the unbeaten matchup. The only game between 3-0 teams went to the Chiefs, 30-27 in Las Vegas. Kenneth Walker III ran 22 times for 177 yards and two touchdowns, with a long of 76, and Patrick Mahomes threw two touchdown passes on a 15-of-30 day. Kirk Cousins threw 52 times trying to keep up, leaning on tight ends Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer, and the Raiders cut a 30-19 deficit to three before time ran out.
The Rams escape Philadelphia. The Eagles led 20-10 at halftime after two Matthew Stafford interceptions and two Jalen Hurts touchdown passes to Darius Cooper, and then they didn't score again. Philadelphia went 0-for-12 on third down, the worst mark in franchise history, and 1-for-4 on fourth. Nick Sirianni passed on a short field goal that would have made it 23-10, the Rams stopped the Eagles at their own 2, and Stafford drove 98 yards. Kyren Williams scored twice in the last four minutes, the winner a 7-yard run through several tacklers with 1:10 left, and Byron Young sacked Hurts twice on Philadelphia's final drive. Saquon Barkley (hamstring), Quinyon Mitchell (knee), and Jonathan Greenard (ankle) all left and didn't return.
Carolina's night. In the Panthers' first Sunday night game in a decade, Bryce Young went 29-of-41 for 329 yards and two touchdowns with no turnovers. Tetairoa McMillan caught 14 passes for 192 yards and both scores, and Chuba Hubbard ran for 122 yards and two more as Carolina scored on six straight possessions. They did it without receivers Jalen Coker and Xavier Legette and with both starting cornerbacks on injured reserve. Jared Goff threw for 412 yards, but Detroit's last drive never got past its own 25. Panthers 32, Lions 26.
Lamb's 17 catches. CeeDee Lamb caught 17 passes in Houston, one short of Jason Witten's franchise single-game record, for 189 yards. The last one was a 12-yard touchdown from Dak Prescott that finished an 11-play, 74-yard drive in 1:43. Javonte Williams ran for three second-half touchdowns as Dallas scored 28 points after halftime and won 34-30. It was the third time in four weeks Houston's defense allowed a late score that decided the game.
Watson does it again. The week opened Thursday in Cleveland, where Deshaun Watson led a game-winning drive for the third straight game. This one set up Andre Szmyt's career-long 56-yard field goal with 10 seconds left in a 27-24 win over Pittsburgh. Aaron Rodgers had tied it with a touchdown pass to Pat Freiermuth and a two-point sneak with 1:42 to go, and Grant Delpit ended it by intercepting a Hail Mary. The Browns are alone in first in the AFC North for the first time since November 2014.
Chicago's defense has taken over. The Bears beat the Jets 23-12 and held an opponent under 13 points for the third straight game. New York gained 157 yards, went 0-for-7 on third down, and ran 32 plays to Chicago's 89. Tyson Bagent, starting with Caleb Williams still out with a hamstring injury, threw for 268 yards, and Kyle Monangai ran for 146 yards and two touchdowns. The Jets did get one thing: Minkah Fitzpatrick's second-quarter interception ended the franchise's NFL-record drought of 20 games and 637 days without one.
Jacksonville keeps beating contenders. A week after routing New England, the Jaguars won 22-17 in Cincinnati despite 125 penalty yards and multiple overturned touchdowns. Their front held the Bengals to 23 rushing yards on 15 carries, which pushed Joe Burrow into 54 throws for 428 yards and two interceptions. In the final minute the defense stopped Chase Brown a yard short on fourth-and-10 at the 12. Trevor Lawrence was 18-of-23 for 227 yards without a turnover.
The injury ledger. Lamar Jackson had his ankle rolled up on just before halftime and didn't return. Baltimore didn't score in the second half and still beat Tennessee 24-18, with Tyler Huntley going 8-of-9 in relief, and Jackson is considered day-to-day. Ja'Marr Chase left Cincinnati's loss with a concussion. In London, Marcus Mariota aggravated his MCL in the first quarter and Washington, already without Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin, finished with seventh-round rookie Athan Kaliakmanis in a 30-13 loss to the Colts. Add Barkley, Mitchell, Greenard, and Surtain, and the Week 5 injury reports will move rankings as much as the games do.
MNF thoughts (not played). Atlanta (1-2) at New Orleans (1-2), 8:15 p.m. ET at the Caesars Superdome. Michael Penix Jr. is available a week after his return at Lambeau, and the Falcons have nobody ruled out, though linebacker Divine Deablo and edge rusher Samson Ebukam are questionable. The Saints will be without linebacker Kaden Elliss and edge rushers Carl Granderson and Anfernee Jennings. That's a lot of missing defense against an Atlanta offense that just ran for 242 yards in Green Bay. Both teams are provisional in the rankings below.
I Think I Think
The most important call in Buffalo wasn't the deep ball to Chism. It was what came after. Maye said the Bills had 11 men on the line at the end, so instead of handing off into a loaded box, the Patriots let him throw to run out the clock, and he credited offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels for "trusting me and putting it into our hands." A month of bad football, and the staff still gave him the ball with the game on the line. That's how a struggling quarterback gets his confidence back.
Matthew Stafford has six interceptions in four games after throwing eight all of last season. The Rams won anyway on Sunday, but two first-half picks turned into 10 Philadelphia points. The reigning MVP doesn't need to play better for the Rams to win; he needs to stop handing out free possessions.
A deep dive on the backup quarterback problem:
a) The Giants are 3-1 and leading the NFC East with Jameis Winston, who threw two interceptions Sunday and still won by 12. That works when your opponent's quarterback throws three.
b) Chicago has won with three different starters, and the defense is the reason. Allowing under 13 points three weeks in a row covers for a lot.
c) Washington is what happens when the backup gets hurt too. If Kaliakmanis had gone down in London, tight end Colson Yankoff was next. Every team says it has a plan at quarterback; most have a plan for one injury, not two.
In Philly, the 0-for-12 will land on first-year offensive coordinator Sean Mannion, and some of it should. But Hurts was 12-of-27 for 93 yards, and Barkley played only a few snaps. A team leading by 10 with four minutes left needs one first down. Philadelphia couldn't get it, and that's on everybody.
Seattle can't commit 150 yards in penalties next week and beat San Francisco. The Seahawks had the Chargers down 27-6 and needed a strip-sack to finish it. Against a team that doesn't give up sacks, those mistakes won't get bailed out.
Will Reichard has made 31 straight field goals and has scored 35 of Minnesota's 47 points since Week 2. That's great for Reichard. It's also the clearest sign that the Vikings' 4-0 is fragile, because no unbeaten team can keep settling for three.
Kenneth Walker's 177 yards were the biggest development in Kansas City this season. The Chiefs haven't had a back who can win a game by himself in a while. If defenses have to account for him, Mahomes gets easier looks than he's had all year.
Tampa Bay starting an undrafted rookie in Week 4 is a roster-building failure, not a bad break. Jalon Daniels did what he could, going 19-of-27 with two interceptions, and the Bucs lost by three. A veteran backup probably wins that game.
Carolina's offense finally looked the way it was drawn up. Young kept the Lions guessing on run-pass options and kept finding McMillan, including a toe-tap catch on third-and-14 that drained the clock late. The "MVP" chants were early. The two missed extra points were a reminder that the Panthers still have things to fix.
Cleveland's special teams deserve a line. Szmyt is 8-for-8 on field goals and 7-for-7 on extra points this season, and punter Corey Bojorquez averaged 62.8 yards on four punts Thursday, including an 81-yarder and one downed at the Pittsburgh 1. Field position won that game as much as Watson did.
Houston should be judged on its next two division games, Tennessee and Jacksonville, not on the 0-4. The Texans climbed out of 0-3 last year. But three late collapses in four weeks is a pattern, and a defense that can't close won't get the chance to do it twice.