What we learned from week 4 of the NFL Season: Results, highlights and analysis (2024)

Week 4 of the NFL season is underway and The Athletic has you covered for all of the weekend's top matchups, news, highlights and storylines.

• How the Chiefs beat the Bucs on Sunday Night Football
• Complete Week 4 scores and schedule
• Updated division-by-division standings

--

Subscribe to DAZN and watch every second of the NFL season, when and where you want it (Canada only).

The Athletic may receive an affiliate commission if you open an account with DAZN through links contained in the above content.

--

(Top photo: Kim Klement / USA Today)

Heading into Sunday’s showdown, the Bills knew they were in for a battle with the Ravens, a bonafide contender for the AFC crown in their own right and the highest-scoring team through three weeks. They needed every ounce of offense they could muster over the last 31:47 to claim a 23-20 win and a 3-1 start to the season.

But it all could have unraveled in one moment if the Bills had anyone other than quarterback Josh Allen.

In any team’s search for a championship, regardless of how talented they may be, there are always little pockets of uncertainty. It’s at those distinct moments, usually in a crucial stage of the game, where those singular instances can define the year.

And when the Bills needed a rescue on the game-winning drive, Allen provided it in another memorable way. Although it wasn’t a scoring play, if Allen didn’t use every ounce of what makes him uniquely Josh Allen, the Bills may have returned from Baltimore with a loss and a 2-2 record.

Straight out, let’s affirm that forecasting the MVP race in October is futile.

Yet when Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson are in the same stadium, the discussion will be had. We learned valuable information about the two quarterbacks who entered Sunday’s game in M&T Stadium betting favorites for the honor, and in the span of a couple of hours, they switched places a couple of times.

Read more here.

(Photo: Mitch Stringer / USA Today)

There was a point in Sunday’s game when Colts head coach Frank Reich, fed up with a running game that wasn’t going anywhere, turned to his offensive coordinator, Marcus Brady, and said, “I might have to throw it on every down.”

The problem with that is the Colts had the league’s leading rusher last season by over 550 yards.

But no matter. Last season was last season. The running game was nonexistent in Sunday’s 24-17 loss to Tennessee, and the Colts’ 38 rushing yards were the franchise’s lowest since November of 2015.

How long ago was that?

Consider who was the starting quarterback that day: 40-year-old Matt Hasselbeck.

The Colts’ issues in the running game speak to a bigger problem, an imbalance Reich’s team hasn’t been able to overcome a month into the season: Indianapolis isn’t winning up front. When a team is built to own the trenches, when a league-high 19.8 percent of the salary cap is devoted to the offensive line, and that position group is routinely getting exposed every week, the results are predictable: turnovers, stunted drives and ineffective red zone play. And more than likely, losses piling up.

In an eventful day for Commanders injury news, head coach Ron Rivera also revealed rookie wideout Jahan Dotson could miss time.

Dotson, who has four touchdowns on 12 catches through four games, suggested after Sunday's game that his injury was minor.

Tyreek Hill with a pretty straightforward answer in the difference between being traded to Miami instead of New York.

Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has accounted for a higher percentage of his team's rushing yards than any other quarterback.

Long way to go but that's just not something that happens over a full season in the NFL.

The Cowboys defense continued a four-game trend in 2022 that continues to declare very exciting possibilities for what lies ahead. No, not beating the New York Giants and the third iteration in four years of what we know Washington as — that has happened plenty around here in recent years. (Although if we may sidebar for just a moment and remember the two matchups against Washington in 2020 without Dak Prescott felt like a community college trying to play Alabama. In fact, I believe that is what Dallas had those two days a few years back as it tried to deal with the boys from Alabama that Washington employs on its defensive line. Let’s just say it was the ugliest of mismatches and Dallas was not a great threat to deal with what turned out to be a mediocre Washington team against everyone else).

What we are talking about here is that Dallas can win a game on either side of the ball now, it appears. Because the Cowboys have themselves a defense that is not showing many cracks in the foundation.

Read more here.

Veteran cornerback Jimmy Smith will retire as a Baltimore Raven on Monday, ending an 11-year NFL career.

Smith, 34, spent his entire career in Baltimore, starting 90 games and winning a Super Bowl with the 2012 team in his second year in the league. Smith intercepted 14 passes and scored three defensive touchdowns over the course of his career.

Read more here.

Giants head coach Brian Daboll says quarterback Daniel Jones is feeling a little bit better today after suffering an ankle injury in Sunday's win over the Bears

"We'll see how that goes"

Daboll says they'll work out a few QBs but whether they sign is dependent on the guys here.

(Photo: Brad Penner / USA Today)

Lions coach Dan Campbell, who said after Sunday's 48-45 loss to the Seahawks that he would "look at everything" related to the defense, told reporters today that he believes defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn "is the right man for the job."

Colton Pouncy, The Athletic's Lions beat writer, reported that Campbell said he'll work with Glenn to simplify the defense and that "we're gonna need to move some personnel around."

The Lions are 1-3 and visit the Patriots on Sunday before a Week 6 bye.

Commanders RB Brian Robinson will practice this week, giving him a chance to come off the non-football injury list within the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, Chase Young is eligible to come off of injured reserve anytime, but he is not yet ready to practice. The 2020 Defensive Rookie of the Year is still recovering from a serious knee injury sustained in November.

I certainly understand why Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh eschewed a 19-yard Justin Tucker field goal and opted to go for the touchdown on fourth-and-goal from the 2 with just over four minutes remaining in a tie game against the Buffalo Bills Sunday.

His defense had been on skates since late in the second quarter. It had managed just one stop and allowed 17 Bills points on the previous four drives. Regardless of what Harbaugh said Sunday or says during his mid-Monday afternoon news conference about trusting his defense, and regardless of what you’re all saying now in hindsight, there’s no possible way that he or you could have been terribly confident that the Ravens’ defense was going to make a three-point lead stand with Josh Allen and the Bills having four minutes and three timeouts to work with.

But here are some of the factors that Harbaugh should (and may) have also considered in making the ill-fated decision.

The 49ers’ formula for beating the Rams in recent years has been this: creativity + Deebo Samuel = victory.

Following a 43-17 home loss to the Dolphins in 2020 — last week’s game against the Broncos was bad; the loss to Miami was much worse — the 49ers got back on track by feeding short passes to Samuel in a win over the Rams.

How short? All six throws were caught behind the line of scrimmage, which led to some uncommon statistics for Samuel: 66 receiving yards with 96 yards after the catch. His success in bullying and bursting his way through traffic that day was a sign he might be useful as a running back.

The following year, that’s exactly how the 49ers used him, beginning with a Week 10 meeting with the Rams.

They were 3-5 heading into the contest and Kyle Shanahan later admitted he’d reached a point at which he had to decide whether to keep shooting for the playoffs or insert rookie Trey Lance at quarterback and concentrate on next season. The 49ers stayed the course. They suddenly came alive on “Monday Night Football” against the Rams, especially Samuel and the running game. He took five handoffs, including one he turned into an 8-yard touchdown in the second quarter.

The 49ers again reached for the Deebo button in the must-win encounter in Los Angeles in Week 18: eight carries for 45 yards and another rushing touchdown. And he got another seven carries in the NFC Championship Game.

But there was something different about that final meeting. For one, the 49ers lost the game after having won the previous six matchups with the Rams. And Samuel wasn’t much of a factor at running back, finishing with 26 yards and a very un-Deebo-like 3.7-yard average.

Read more here.