What we learned in NFL Week 4: Ravens get mojo back, Vikings prove staying power

Two weeks ago, the Baltimore Ravens walked off their home field 0-2 while boos rained down.

Super Bowl contenders? They’d just squandered a 10-point fourth-quarter lead to the Las Vegas Raiders. Penalties were killing them. The defense wasn’t right. Even Justin Tucker was missing kicks.

One of the league’s most consistent winners had suddenly dropped three in a row dating to last year’s AFC Championship Game. What was wrong? And how long was it going to take to fix it?

“There’s no way we should be 0-2, but it is what it is,” Ravens middle linebacker Roquan Smith said then.

Late Sunday night, the Ravens walked off the same field 2-2, having overpowered a pair of playoff teams from last season in consecutive weeks. Baltimore’s 35-10 dismantling of the previously unbeaten Buffalo Bills served as a reminder: this team’s not going anywhere.

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NFL Week 4 takeaways: Does Rice injury derail Chiefs’ offense? Commanders best in the NFC East?

Two weeks ago in New Orleans feels like a long time, too: in mid-September, the Saints were the talk of the league. After Sunday’s 26-24 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans is back at .500 and no longer in first place in the division.

That spot belongs to the 3-1 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who raced to a 24-0 lead over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday before winning 33-16. Even with the addition of Saquon Barkley, who’s been terrific with five touchdowns already, Philly’s offense doesn’t look right. Maybe A.J. Brown’s return — whenever it comes — helps, but a month in the Eagles are playing like a very mediocre team. And credit to Tampa, where Todd Bowles once again has his team atop the NFC South, and where Baker Mayfield continues to script a comeback story few across this league envisioned when he signed there before the 2023 season.

In Chicago, Caleb Williams stayed unbeaten at Soldier Field in his young career, helping the Bears to a 24-18 win over the injury-battered Los Angeles Rams, who are suddenly 1-3 and among the league’s biggest disappointments. Williams, who threw two interceptions in each of Chicago’s previous two games, was sharper Sunday, completing nearly 74 percent of his throws.

The Cincinnati Bengals, meanwhile, avoided an unthinkable 0-4 start by beating the Carolina Panthers 34-24. Cincinnati is still 7-14-1 under coach Zac Taylor in the month of September, but 0-4 would’ve been pretty close to a death knell: only one team in NFL history, the 1992 San Diego Chargers, made the playoffs after losing their first four games of the season.

Staying in the AFC North, the league’s longest active regular-season win streak was snapped in Indianapolis, where the Colts upset the Pittsburgh Steelers 27-24. Pittsburgh entered the game having won six straight dating to last season. But two fumbles proved costly, and Indy’s Joe Flacco was solid in relief of Anthony Richardson, throwing for two touchdowns after the Colts’ starter left with a hip injury.

That keeps the Colts (2-2) a game behind the AFC South-leading Houston Texans, who avoided an ugly upset at home to the Jacksonville Jaguars by covering 64 yards in nine plays and capping their final drive with a one-yard touchdown from C.J. Stroud to Dare Ogunbowale with 18 seconds left. Jacksonville is now a stunning 0-4, and Trevor Lawrence has somehow lost nine consecutive starts dating to last November.

“I’m pretty frustrated,” Lawrence said. “When we have the game in our hands, we have to go win it. And we obviously didn’t do that today.”

With the game on the line in Las Vegas, Raiders defensive end Charles Snowden ended it, sacking Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson to preserve a 20-16 victory. Cleveland and its $230 million quarterback are now 1-3 on the season and have yet to score more than 20 points in a game. And in San Francisco, the 49ers got right with a 30-13 rout of the New England Patriots.

Here’s what we learned in Week 4 of the NFL season:

Ravens get their mojo back

This wasn’t just the Ravens reminding the AFC — and the rest of the league — how scary they look when everything’s clicking. This was Lamar Jackson, twice an MVP already, tempering the Josh Allen MVP hype that’s picked up considerable steam in the early part of the season.

The Ravens and Bills remain the top threats to unseat Kansas City in the AFC. And on Sunday night at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, the Ravens flexed their muscle, putting to rest any early-season concerns that they’d taken a step back after last year’s disappointing showing in the conference championship game.

This was Baltimore at its best, bruising on defense and punishing with the football. It started with Derrick Henry’s 87-yard touchdown burst on the first play from scrimmage, the longest by any team to open a game in 11 years. And from there it was a beatdown, methodical and convincing, one of the more impressive showings by any team nearly a quarter of the way into the season. The Bills (3-1) had looked terrific the last two weeks. Sunday night, they couldn’t keep up.

Jackson threw for two touchdowns and ran for another. In his sixth full year as a starter, he’s now 17-5 in primetime games, the second-best record of any quarterback all-time behind only Hall of Famer Steve Young.

The Bills’ loss leaves just three unbeatens left in the league, with Seattle putting its 3-0 record on the line Monday night against Detroit. Minnesota and Kansas City are both 4-0.

For the second straight season, the No. 2 pick is taking the league by storm.

And, same as C.J. Stroud did a year ago in Houston, Jayden Daniels has the Commanders believing the playoffs are possible. A month in it’s Washington — and not Dallas or Philadelphia — sitting atop the NFC East.

The rookie quarterback out of LSU is the biggest reason why. In two games across six days, Daniels has accounted for nearly as many touchdowns (five) as he’s thrown incompletions (six). Daniels is a staggering 47 of 53 in consecutive wins over the Bengals and Cardinals, and on Sunday in Arizona, he piled up 280 all-purpose yards and completed passes to nine receivers in a dominant 42-14 win. That’s three straight wins for the Commanders, who won four games all of last season.

Dan Quinn’s second stint as head coach is off to a stellar start, and offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, who earned a game ball after lighting up his former team Sunday, is doing a masterful job calling the offense.

“Me and Kliff just have that communication, that honesty, where I’m able to go into his office and say, ‘Hey, I don’t like this,’” Daniels said. “And he’s here for it. He wants to put us in the best spot.”

So far, Kingsbury has. Daniels is the first player in NFL history with completion percentages of 85 or higher in consecutive starts. His 82.1 completion percentage four games into the season is not merely the best of any rookie passer to begin a career, but also the best of any QB four games into a season ever, including Tom Brady (79.2 percent) during his career year of 2007.

It’s early, but so far the Offensive Rookie of the Year award is Daniels’ to lose.

Another close Chiefs’ win comes at a cost

Sunday’s game in Los Angeles started with every wide receiver on the Chiefs’ roster warming up in a Travis Kelce T-shirt, a sign of support for the All-Pro tight end after his forgettable three-game start to the season. Once the game started, Kelce was Kelce again, snagging seven catches for 89 yards, and the Chiefs were the early-season Chiefs, doing just enough to beat the Chargers, 17-10.

That’s now four straight one-score wins to open the year for the two-time defending champs.

But Sunday’s victory came at a cost, one this team will feel for months: second-year receiver Rashee Rice left with a knee injury, and the Chiefs fear it’s a torn ACL, which would knock him out for the rest of the season. Coach Andy Reid said an MRI is set for Monday. This is already a team without wideout Marquise Brown (for the year) and running back Isaiah Pacheco (for several more weeks). The defense remains one of the most punishing in the league, and there’s no need to sweat over a middling offense that hasn’t yet hit its stride — this unit has earned the benefit of the doubt over the years — but there’s no way around it: Rice’s injury is a big loss. He was off to a terrific start this season and gave Kansas City a consistent downfield threat.

His absence will put more on Patrick Mahomes, still the league’s best player despite a sluggish start to the season, and Kelce, who’ll turn 35 this week.

Xavier Worthy, time to step up.

The Chiefs always seem to find a way, and they’re 4-0 despite not playing anything close to their best football to start the year. But Rice’s absence will matter in the months ahead as Kansas City chases the first three-peat in the Super Bowl era.

Who had the Vikings starting 4-0?

Entering the season, most sportsbooks had between 20 and 22 teams with better odds of reaching the Super Bowl than the Minnesota Vikings; plenty more projected them to finish last in the crowded NFC North. On the surface, it made sense. Kirk Cousins signed with the Falcons in the offseason, then the Vikings’ first-round pick at quarterback, J.J. McCarthy, tore his meniscus during training camp and was lost for the year.

But even if McCarthy had stayed healthy, Sam Darnold was the Vikings’ most likely Week 1 starter. Few knew what to expect. Darnold is on his fourth team in five years. He’s never thrown more than 20 touchdowns in a season. And when it came to the division, the preseason chatter centered elsewhere. Jared Goff and the Lions were fresh off an NFC Championship Game appearance. Jordan Love and the Packers were a trendy Super Bowl pick. In Chicago, Caleb Williams was supposed to be the quarterback who would erase decades of futility in Chicago.

The Vikings were, essentially, afterthoughts.

A month into the season they’re one of three NFL teams without a loss. Darnold’s thrown 11 touchdowns against three interceptions and is one of the best stories in football: the third overall pick who was run out of New York, spent the next three years bouncing around as a backup and has found a way to resurrect his career for a team that was all but written off before the season started.

It helps that he’s throwing to the best receiver in the league in Justin Jefferson, who’s been on a tear to open 2024: Jefferson already has 358 receiving yards and four touchdowns in four games. Adding Aaron Jones has given the run game a new punch, and Kevin O’Connell has done an excellent job of tailoring his offense to Darnold’s strengths, then allowing the veteran to let it rip on Sundays. Brian Flores’ defense has been one of the league’s stiffest units.

This week, the Vikings raced to an improbable 28-0 lead on a Packers team that had won two straight and was welcoming Love back to the lineup. Then it got dicey. After the 31-29 victory, O’Connell seemed less than satisfied. “Lot of things to clean up,” he said. “Starts with me.”

But the win moves Minnesota to 4-0. So far, the Vikings are proving their staying power: this isn’t just a contender in the NFC North but in the wide-open NFC.

“It’s awesome to be the head football coach of this organization right now,” O’Connell added. “Because I feel we’ve got the right kind of guys, the right kind of leadership, and we’re gonna continue to improve, which is important.”

Rodgers: ‘That’s on the offense. That’s on me.’

Aaron Rodgers’ look said it all. Sitting on the bench in the final moments of the Jets’ 10-9 home loss to the Broncos, he slipped his hat on, then covered his face with his towel.

Disgust. Disappointment. And, more than likely, disbelief.

New York couldn’t manage a single touchdown all day? And couldn’t beat a Broncos team that scored just 10 points? That had a rookie quarterback who threw for just 60 yards?

It was a strange, sloppy afternoon at MetLife Stadium. And to be fair, the Jets’ offensive line struggled — Rodgers was sacked five times. But for a team trying to hunt down the Bills in the AFC East, this was a discouraging result, a reminder of what football looked like last year for this team when Rodgers wasn’t on the field.

These are games serious teams can’t afford to lose. Afterward, Rodgers knew it.

“When your defense holds them to 10, you’ve got to win the game 100 percent of the time,” he said. “That’s on the offense. That’s on me. Not good enough.”

He finished 24 of 42 for 225 yards and no touchdowns or interceptions. The Jets running backs managed just 38 rushing yards. Six of their first seven possessions ended with either a punt or a fumble. Still, with 47 seconds left, they had a shot to escape with a win. Then, in fitting fashion, kicker Greg Zuerlein missed a 50-yard field goal wide right. Rodgers covered his face on the bench.

Four games into the season, the Jets (2-2) have sandwiched two wins over lousy teams (the Titans and Patriots) with two dispiriting losses (routed in the opener by the 49ers, then Sunday’s 10-9 loss to the Broncos). Tougher tests await. Over the next three weeks, the Jets will face the Vikings, Bills and Steelers, teams with a combined record of 10-2.

(Photo of Lamar Jackson: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)