Unstoppable. Unsolvable. Straight-up unbelievable. Those words have all been used to describe the Miami Dolphins’ electric offence through three weeks of play.
Now, perhaps it’s time we apply those words to the Buffalo Bills, who stopped the league’s highest-scoring squad in its tracks, solved the Dolphins’ attack, and put together a pretty unbelievable gameplan to stake their claim to the AFC throne to open October.
What started as a shootout — the game’s first five drives all resulted in touchdowns, with the Bills setting the tone and the Dolphins quickly responding with score of their own — ended as a decisive 48-20 win favouring the home team in Buffalo. The Bills handed the Dolphins their first loss of the year and leapfrogged them for the top spot in the AFC East in the process.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen was nearly flawless in this one, connecting on all but four passes for 320 yards and four touchdowns through the air — a perfect 159.3 passer rating — plus a rushing TD, too. Three of his TD passes were caught by Stefon Diggs, who racked up 130 yards.
While Allen was the star of this show, Buffalo’s defence put together a performance nearly as perfect as that of their QB. The Bills kept Tyreek Hill in check, limiting him to 58 yards and no scores, held Tua Tagovailoa to just a single TD pass, and recovered from a pair of early rushing scores from De’Von Achane to limit the Dolphins to just six points in the second half.
With Miami’s loss, the league’s undefeated teams count is down to just two: The Eagles edged the Washington Commanders (the team that ended their season-opening win streak last year) for their fourth straight win to open 2023, while the San Francisco 49ers handled the Arizona Cardinals 35-16 to preserve their own 4-0 start.
Here’s a collection of other takeaways from Week 4’s eventful afternoon slate.
Falcons’ offence falls short again (and the NFC South has its early leader)
New country, same old struggles. Sunday saw the Atlanta Falcons, despite a wealth of weapons on offence, unable get much going across the pond in London against the Jacksonville Jaguars. After putting up 24 and 25 points in back-to-back victories against the Carolina Panthers and Green Bay Packers, respectively, to open up the season 2-0, Atlanta has put up a mere 13 points combined in a pair of losses against Detroit (Week 3) and Jacksonville.
Sunday’s 23-7 loss at Wembley Stadium wasn’t all bad for the visiting Falcons — at least, not quite as sorry as the score would indicate: Rookie running back Bijan Robinson bounced back with a solid 105 yards in 14 carries, Drake London (fittingly) scored a TD, and Atlanta had more first downs (17) and better third-down efficiency (6/12) than the winning side. But quarterback Desmond Ridder gave up two game-changing interceptions, one of which was returned 61 yards for a defensive touchdown.
The Falcons’ loss also opened the door wide open for one of the New Orleans Saints or Tampa Bay Buccaneers to take an early division lead as those two division rivals went head-to-head. All three of the Falcons, Saints, and Buccaneers were sitting at 2-1 heading into Sunday’s matchups, and Baker Mayfield’s Bucs took care of business on the road with a dominant 26-9 win to take the early division lead.
Nacua makes history, plays OT hero against surging Colts
Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua has been a revelation through the first month of the NFL season. Through the first three weeks, the fifth-round rookie went from being a stand-in for Cooper Kupp as the No. 1 receiver to a standout top option in his own right. And on Sunday, he had his best game yet.
With his first catch of the day against the Colts, Nacua made history. His incredible, bobbling one-handed grab in the first quarter was the 31st catch of his young career, giving him the record for most catches by an NFL rookie in his first four games.
And with his final catch Sunday, he got himself his first career NFL touchdown with about as clutch a play as you can get: a walk-off game-winner in overtime to steal back victory after the Colts’ 23-point comeback in Anthony Richardson’s first game back from a concussion.
Nacua now has 501 receiving yards on the season, which is the most ever accumulated in a player’s first four career NFL games.
It’s Donna Kelce’s world, we’re all just living in it
This is the insider info we all need:
Are the Bengals broken?
The Cincinnati Bengals saved their season last Monday night with a win over the Los Angeles Rams that prevented them from the dreaded 0-3 season start. Six days later in Tennessee, they looked completely lost again, losing to the Tennessee Titans 27-3 to take their record to 1-3.
This was the second time the Bengals have managed just three points on offence this season (they lost 24-3 to the Browns in Week 1) and the third time Joe Burrow has been held without a touchdown pass this year. Making matters worse on Sunday was the loss of receiver Tee Higgins, who is expected to miss some time after suffering a fractured rib in the loss.
Based on Ja’Marr Chase’s comments post-game, we could be in for quite an interesting week in Cincinnati…
Bears break down, Broncos surge in second half for first win under Payton
Entering Sunday, the NFL had four winless clubs and as fate would have it each 0-3 team faced a fellow winless squad.
The Minnesota Vikings earned their first win of the season with a 21-13 victory over the Carolina Panthers that featured a pair of touchdowns from Justin Jefferson, but things got downright chaotic in the NFL’s other 0-3 battle. Denver’s league-worst defence looked the part in the first half Bears QB Justin Fields was firing on all cylinders to the tune of a perfect 16/16 completion rate to start the game and three straight touchdown passes in the first half.
And the second half started. Save for a Bears touchdown pass from Fields to start the second and extend Chicago’s lead to 28-7, the winning side fell apart. The Broncos defence, meanwhile, looked like a different unit — and certainly not the same one that gave up a whopping 70 points to the Dolphins last week. Denver held Chicago scoreless the rest of the game while scoring three unanswered TDs of their own, followed by a late game-winning field goal to claim the 31-28 victory.
You can credit the clean play from Russell Wilson (three TD passes, no INTs), a four-sack day for Denver’s front line, a breakout game from running back Jaleel McLaughlin (72 rushing yards plus three catches and a TD), or the Bears’ total (but not totally unexpected) defensive breakdown… or, you can make the logical choice and chalk it up to Sean Payton’s sleeves:
Yup, definitely the sleeves.
Stroud’s INT-free streak continues
We’ve seen some impressive rookie performances through the first month of the NFL season, but few as clutch as No. 2 overall pick C.J. Stroud, who in four short weeks has answered plenty of questions about whether he can be a No. 1 QB.
While Stroud’s completion numbers weren’t standout-level Sunday against Pittsburgh (he went 16 for 30 on the day), he did rack up an impressive 306 yards and two touchdown passes and kept his interception-free steak alive in a lopsided 30-6 statement win over the Steelers.
He has now thrown 151 passes without an interception, which marks the longest pick-free stretch to start an NFL career.
Throwback Mack shreds Raiders’ O-line with historic sack total
Remember how dominant linebacker Khalil Mack used to be during his early career with the Raiders? He could flat-out wreck a game, registering double-digit sacks in three straight seasons before landing in Chicago via a blockbuster trade.
Raiders fans were reminded of Mack’s powerful attack Sunday in L.A. as the Chargers defender (now in his second season with the Bolts) put on a show that was vintage Mack at his best, sacking Raiders backup Aidan O’Connell a whopping six times. The 32-year-old entered Week 4 without a sack and now finds himself near the top of the leaderboard for the season following the 24-17 win.
CMC for MVP?
Let’s be clear: No one wants to hear about your fantasy team. That’s especially true if you have Christian McCaffrey, who racked up a whopping 48.7 fantasy points on Sunday alone, on your team. Congratulations, you’ve won your league. We get it.
But seriously, let’s talk about CMC. The star running back scored a career-high four touchdowns in Sunday’s 35-16 win over the Arizona Cardinals (three rushing, one receiving) and he made some franchise history in the process. McCaffrey has now scored at least one touchdown in 13 straight games with the 49ers (including playoffs), which sees him pass the record set by legendary San Francisco receiver Jerry Rice.
Cowboys bounce back, hand Belichick his worst career loss
Throw cold water on those hot Cowboys takes — Dallas is going to be just fine. One week after suffering a stunning upset against Arizona, the Cowboys bounced back in a big way with a dominant outing against the New England Patriots, 38-3. Cowboys QB Dak Prescott went 28 for 34 on the day for 261 yards and a touchdown pass but it was the defence that did the most damage in this one. Mac Jones was intercepted twice before being replaced by backup Bailey Zappe, with Big D’s big defence running one back for the pick-six and also cashing in on a fumble for the score.
With the win, the Cowboys handed Patriots head coach Bill Belichick the worst loss of his career.
Not to mention, Dallas’ return to form comes just in time for their biggest bout of the season so far: A prime time date with the undefeated 49ers next Sunday night.