NFL Regular Season Week 4 Recap

Our NFL week 4 recap shows the Bears, the Saints and the Jags finally won a game, The Ravens are not unbeatable, and the Patriots got blanked in their own turf. Also the Steelers are showing as Super Bowl material.Week 4 is in the books! See below for our week 4 recap of every single game!

Editor’s Note: Check out our NFL Week 4 Picks by Matt Ross and the Week 4 Betting Preview DS Williamson

NFL Betting – Regular Season Week 4 Recap

Miami Dolphins 7, Cincinnati Bengals 22

The key to this game was Cincinnati’s defense, which held the Dolphins to 62 rushing yards and QB Ryan Tannehill to 189 passing yards a TD and an interception. Dolphins’ Coach Adam Gase knows how to put together a game plan in order to score points against a defense.

The fact that the Bengals held Miami to that low yardage and only 7 points is what’s impressive. Oh, WR A.J. Green catching 10 of 12 targets for 173 yards and a TD wasn’t too shabby either.

Carolina Panthers 33, Atlanta Falcons 48

Man, Atlanta’s defense is good! Before moving on, I have to apologize to Falcons’ offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan and QB Matt Ryan. I didn’t think that the two would get it together enough in order to improve upon the somewhat disappointing offense from last season.

Ryan is playing at an MVP level. Against Carolina’s supposedly tough defense, Ryan passed for 503 yards and 4 touchdowns. WR Julio Jones caught 12 of 15 targets for 300 yards. He scored a TD. Your read that right. Jones racked up 300 receiving yards in an NFL game.

The bad news for Carolina in this matchup is that Cam Newton left the game due to a concussion. It’s unlikely that he plays this Sunday. Things haven’t gone well for the Panthers this season. They are 1 and 3 straight up, the defense is allowing an average of 29.5 point per game, and last year’s MVP is hurt.

The door is open for Tampa Bay, Atlanta for sure, and even possibly New Orleans to take the NFC South.

Indianapolis Colts 27, Jacksonville Jaguars 30

The Jaguars finally won a game in their home stint at Wembley Stadium in London this past Sunday. I write home game because the Jaguars’ owner is dead set on getting a full time NFL team to London in the future.

I was truly impressed by Jags’ QB Blake Bortles in this one. Sometimes, the light bulb goes off for a QB in the pro league. That happened for Bortles in this game. He didn’t force the football. He only threw for 207 yards. But he also threw 2 TD passes, rushed for a TD, and rushed for 36 yards from 7 carries. It means that Blake read Indianapolis’s terrible defense correctly on most of the plays. That’s good news for the Jags.

Detroit Lions 13, Chicago Bears 17

Chicago won their first game of the season by beating the rival Detroit Lions by 4 points to cover as a +3 home dog in Week 5. The Bears won via their defense. They held Matthew Stafford, who had been tearing it up, to 213 passing yards. Stafford threw 2 interceptions.

Brian Hoyer, Chicago’s starting QB, threw for 302 yards. He threw 2 TD passes.

In addition to their defense playing stoutly, the Bears may have found a viable running back. Jordan Howard from Indiana rushed the football 23 times for 111 yards. That’s a 4.8 rush yards per average. He also caught 3 passes for 1 yard. If Chicago has found a rushing attack, they could upset some favored opponents this year.

Oakland Raiders 28, Baltimore Ravens 27

I’m a believer in Raiders’ QB Derek Carr. After leading the Raiders to a 35 to 34 comeback win over the New Orleans Saints in Week 1, Carr led his team to a 28 to 27 comeback win over the Baltimore Ravens on the road in Week 4.

Carr played a smart game when throwing for 199 yards and 4 touchdowns without any interception. Carr threw 3 TD passes to Michael Crabtree, meaning that if defenses want to guard the terrific Amari Cooper, Carr will go ahead and mix it up.

The then undefeated Ravens came crashing back down to earth. Baltimore’s defense played well when holding the Raiders to only 62 rushing yards and the 199 passing yards. On offense the Ravens’ dominated with 130 rushing yards and 282 passing yards. But Baltimore lost. Is it a sign of things to come? We shall see.

Buffalo Bills 16, New England Patriots 0

In hindsight, all of us NFL handicappers should have seen this one coming. If there is one thing that Rex Ryan knows how to do, it’s play the New England Patriots’ tough.

Rex boasted after the game that he expected to beat the Patriots without Tom Brady. The biggest thing to get out of this game, though, has nothing to do with Tom Brady.

The Patriots’ defense has twice looked terrible in a game. Ryan Tannehill almost upset the Patriots in Week 2 with a 387 yards, 2 TD passes, performance.

Now in Week 4 the Patriots allowed Tyrod Taylor to pass for 246 yards and a TD. It also allowed the Bills to rush for 130 yards on the ground.

Tennessee Titans 20, Houston Texans 27

Houston’s defense finally settled down. Even though the Titans rushed for 124 yards, the Texans did enough to disrupt Tennessee’s woeful passing attack. Marcus Mariota was 13 out of 29, for Houston to get the straight up win and cover.

The Texans’ offense left something to be desired…again. Houston QB Brock Osweiler threw 2 interceptions to go along with 254 passing yards and 2 touchdowns. RB Lamar Miller was held to only 82 rushing yards from 19 carries. Houston is 3 and 1 straight up but they’re not a solid 3 and 1 straight up team.

Cleveland Browns 20, Washington Redskins 31

I thought that the Browns had Washington dead to rights in this game. My guess was that Cleveland would give Coach Jackson his first win as Cleveland’s head coach. I was definitely wrong. The key for Washington, and one of the reasons why I like them against Baltimore in Week 5, is that QB Kirk Cousins is finally starting to come around.

After indecisiveness in the pocket led to two straight Washington losses to start the season, Cousins has finally become the QB that everyone in DC envisioned he would be. His TD to interception ratio in Washington’s last two games, both wins, is 5 to 1. He completed 77.8% of his passes against the Browns.

Seattle Seahawks 27, New York Jets 17

Scoring 37 against San Francisco is one thing. Scoring 27 against the New York Jets on the road is another thing.

I believe we can safely say that Seattle’s offense has come together. Russell Wilson threw for 309 yards and 3 touchdowns. The best news is that TE Jimmy Graham caught 6 of 8 targets for 113 yards. If Wilson and Graham can continue to develop a nice rapport, the Seahawks should do enough to win the NFC West Division.

The Jets have to be thinking about benching Harvard man QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, right? In Jets’ last two games, Fitzpatrick has a 1TD to 7 INT ratio. That’s bad at any level of football.

Los Angeles Rams 17, Arizona Cardinals 13

I had a feeling that the Rams were going to take down the Cardinals in this game. Los Angeles has now won 3 games in a row.

The defense played a bend but don’t break style against the Cards in this one. Arizona rushed for 114 yards. They passed for 302 total yards. But Arizona only scored a single TD while the Rams knocked out Arizona QB Carson Palmer, who is expected to play in Week 5.

Los Angeles also recovered 2 fumbles and picked off Palmer once and back-up Drew Stanton twice.

Denver Broncos 27, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 7

The Broncos’ defense did what it was supposed to do against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 4. It shut down the Buccaneers offense by picking off Jameis Winston twice while holding Tampa Bay to only 72 yards rushing and 143 yards passing.

An issue did come up for Denver in this game. QB Trevor Seimian hurt his shoulder. But, get this? Rookie Paxton Lynch came in and completed 14 out of 24 for 170 yards and a TD.

Dallas Cowboys 24, San Francisco 49’ers 17

It took the Cowboys a while to get it going, but they finally did. QB Dak Prescott was sensational again. He passed for 245 yards and threw 2 touchdowns.

RB Ezekiel Elliott finally let loose. He rushed for 138 yards and a TD.

It’s the same old story for San Francisco. There’s not much to say about this team. We knew they’d be bad. After a flash moment of respectability in Week 1 where they beat the Rams 28 to 0, SF has lost 3 in a row both straight up and ATS.

New Orleans Saints 35, San Diego Chargers 34

Oh, Melvin Gordon! Why, Melvin? Why? Gordon fumbled twice in the Chargers 34 to 35 loss to New Orleans in Week 4.

The Saints, with hall of fame QB Drew Brees under center, took advantage to win the game after being down by 13 points with about 7 minutes to go.

The Chargers are better than this. The Charges have folded in the 4th quarter against Kansas City, Indianapolis and now New Orleans. If San Diego hadn’t folded in the 4th against those 3 teams, they might be 4 and 0 instead of 1 and 3.

Kansas City Chiefs 14, Pittsburgh Steelers 43

I was more wrong about this game than any game in Week 4. Pittsburgh dominated from the outset.

I really thought that Philadelphia had exposed some issues on the Steelers’ defense and that the Chiefs would take advantage of those issues. Not so. Pitt’s D held a decent KC offense to 87 rushing yards.

Big Ben Roethlisberger threw for 300 yards. He threw 5 TD passes. RB Le’Veon Bell, in his first action after his suspension, rushed for 144 yards from 18 carries. He caught 5 passes for 34 yards.

If Pittsburgh’s defense continues to improve, the Steelers have a chance at making it to the Super Bowl.

New York Giants 10, Minnesota Vikings 24

The Vikings’ defense remains one of the top units in the NFL. What I really noticed about this game is how brilliant Minnesota’s coaches are.

It might be the best coaching staff in the entire NFL. The coaches aren’t afraid to make adjustments from game to game in order to be successful.

Against Green Bay, it was all about QB Sam Bradford to WR Stefon Diggs. Versus Carolina it was all about Bradford to TE Kyle Rudolph. Against the Giants, it was about Rudolph again. On offense, Viking coaches have been brilliant.

For the New York Giants, changing it up on offense, maybe, playing both talented running backs Olreans Darkwa and rookie Paul Pierce at the same time might help. The Giants’ defense did all it could to keep NYG in this game.