NFL Week 4: Nine Big Claims and Where We Stand
Nick Sirianni will be fired. Detroit’s Super Bowl window is closed. Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy are going to implode. Four games into the season, those are some hefty conclusions.
Football Forever included all three in a post laying out nine claims about the NFL after Week 4. The list also backed Cleveland as a playoff contender, picked Atlanta to win the NFC South and put Kenneth Walker III on course for Offensive Player of the Year.
Cleveland has earned that attention. Walker has earned a serious award case. The predictions of firings and collapse demand considerably more, even where the frustration behind them is justified.
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Here is where Sports Fountain stands on all nine:
1. “The Browns are playoff contenders”
What else does Cleveland need to do to get into the conversation?
The Browns are 3-1 and have won three straight. Watson has led a late go-ahead drive in each of those victories. Against Pittsburgh, he had to do it after watching an eleven-point fourth-quarter lead disappear.
Rodgers brought the Steelers level inside the final two minutes. Watson got Cleveland into range, and Andre Szmyt won it from 56 yards.
That finish is becoming a habit.
The Browns could have spent the weekend explaining how they let Pittsburgh escape. Their defense needed help after surrendering the lead, and the offense supplied it. Cleveland left with a division win.
It is easy to keep waiting for a team to prove something else, especially when expectations were modest to begin with. At some point, the wins have to count. Cleveland keeps getting the late possession right, and its quarterback is helping decide these games.
The Browns belong in the playoff conversation now.
2. “Nick Sirianni will be fired”
The Eagles scored 20 points before halftime and nothing afterward. They led by ten in the fourth quarter and lost 24-20. Sirianni should expect questions about how an afternoon that promising ended so badly.
The fourth-and-goal attempt from the 2 will get most of the attention. A touchdown would have made it a three-possession game. A field goal would still have left Los Angeles within two touchdowns. Going for it had a reasonable purpose.
But Philadelphia had an entire half to add to its lead. Reducing the defeat to that one call lets too many other possessions off the hook.
Injuries made the job harder. The coaches still had to find something the players remaining on the field could execute. The Eagles never scored again.
That is enough to criticize without predicting Sirianni’s dismissal. Philadelphia is 2-2. We haven’t seen enough to say the organization will give up on him this season.
He does need a response, though. Fans have heard him accept responsibility. They would much rather see the offense keep working after halftime.
3. “The Falcons will win the NFC South”
Have we already forgotten Carolina beating Atlanta 34-3? It’s too early for this call.
That was two weeks ago, in Atlanta. The Panthers have since beaten Detroit, and they share the Falcons’ 2-2 record while holding the head-to-head win.
Atlanta has responded impressively. A 35-14 win at Green Bay followed by a 45-24 win in New Orleans is a substantial recovery. Bijan Robinson broke a 59-yard touchdown on Monday’s third offensive play. Brian Robinson Jr. added three rushing scores. Penix could play comfortably while the ground game kept taking the evening away from the Saints.
The Falcons would happily sign up for more games like that.
Carolina has already shown how different an Atlanta afternoon can look, though. The Panthers did more than scrape past them. They held the Falcons to three points in their own stadium.
Atlanta is a reasonable division pick. Treating it as a conclusion everyone should accept is premature. The Falcons still have to get past a team that has already beaten them convincingly.
Carolina has no reason to step aside.
4. “The Lions’ Super Bowl window is closed”
Detroit’s offense must be wondering how much more it is supposed to do.
The Lions gained 452 yards against Carolina and lost 32-26. Goff threw for 412. They still reached the closing minutes needing another score because the defense had allowed an opponent to reach 30 points for the third time in four games.
McMillan caught 14 passes for 192 yards and two touchdowns. Carolina kept going back to him, and Detroit never found an answer.
That cannot continue if the Lions expect to go anywhere in the postseason. Eventually, the offense will have an ordinary day. A receiver will drop a pass, a drive will stall, or Goff will miss a throw. Detroit needs to survive those things without the whole game getting away.
The offense scored at least 31 points in each of the first three games. There is still enough here to beat good opponents. The Lions need defensive repairs, and they need them quickly.
Their supporters should be angry about how much good offensive football is being wasted. They do not need to bury the season with it.
5. “Kenneth Walker III will win Offensive Player of the Year”
Walker gets our vote through four weeks.
He leads the league with 537 rushing yards. He ran for 173 against Denver and 177 against Las Vegas. Three of his four games have produced at least 175 yards from scrimmage.
Against the Raiders, Kansas City needed his two rushing touchdowns to get through a three-point win. He keeps producing in games where the Chiefs can hardly afford to lose any of that contribution.
A defense already has plenty to think about with Mahomes. Now it also has to deal with a runner who can turn a missed tackle into a long gain. Kansas City can get a major play from a handoff without asking its quarterback to find a way out of trouble.
Walker has done this often enough that the award talk feels earned. It has continued beyond one huge afternoon, and his team keeps benefiting from it.
There is a full season to finish. So far, nobody would be above him on our ballot.
6. “DeMeco Ryans is on the hot seat”
Houston supporters have probably had enough of hearing about the good parts of another defeat.
The Texans scored 30 points against Dallas, took a late lead and still finished the day 0-4. Twice this season, they have reached 30 and lost. Against the Cowboys, the offense gave the defense a game it could close. Dallas drove down the field and took it.
Ryans deserves pressure for that. A coach with his defensive background cannot be comfortable watching those finishes.
According to the Houston Chronicle, he said Monday that immediate coaching or personnel changes were not coming, although he left open the possibility of taking back defensive play-calling duties.
He can keep trusting the people already in place. Four defeats make it fair to ask when that trust will produce a win.
As for his job, we haven’t seen anything showing that Houston’s owners are preparing to move on. Calling for answers is fair. Saying his dismissal is approaching would be getting ahead of what we know.
The Texans visit an also-winless Tennessee team next. Ryans needs his team to finish that game. There is very little patience left for another account of how close Houston came.
7. “The Vikings offense is better with Carson Wentz, not Kyler Murray”
Wentz gave Vikings fans an afternoon worth remembering against Green Bay.
He replaced the concussed Murray, and Minnesota scored touchdowns on four consecutive possessions in a 39-22 win. The offense came alive. Of course people wondered whether it should keep going with the quarterback who had just helped turn the game.
Chicago did little to settle that question. Wentz started, Minnesota won 9-3, and the offense never reached the end zone. The weather was poor, so there is only so much to take from that performance.
Murray should keep the job for now.
His finish against Miami gave the Vikings something to work with. He completed 12 of 13 fourth-quarter passes, and Minnesota eventually had enough control for Hockenson to stop short of the end zone deliberately and let the clock run out.
After an afternoon of field goals, they could leave the defense sitting down.
Minnesota needs more of that from Murray, earlier in games. Wentz has shown he can help. We still haven’t seen enough to say the offense would be better with him starting every week.
8. “Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers will implode this season”
Rodgers wanted a play called. McCarthy appeared to answer his profanity with some of his own. The broadcast caught it, and everyone had an opportunity to decide what it meant about their relationship.
Pittsburgh’s preparation gives us more to go on.
After the New England loss, McCarthy admitted he should have reduced the game-plan volume after seeing the offense struggle in practice. Rodgers could handle what was being asked. The rest of the players still had to execute it.
McCarthy should have adjusted sooner. His quarterback knowing the call does little good if someone else is uncertain when the ball is snapped.
Their years together ought to make Pittsburgh easier to organize. Calls should arrive clearly. Players should understand their assignments. The offense should spend less time trying to get comfortable.
There is enough to question there without assuming the partnership will fall apart. McCarthy and Rodgers need to get the football right. If they do, a few angry words in Cleveland will become much less interesting.
9. “The referees are doing too much”
McBride wanted to know why there was no flag. An official appearing to swear at him was a remarkably poor way to handle the question.
The NFL suspended Jeff Seeman for two games following that exchange. Adrian Hill received a one-game suspension after reacting angrily when Eric Wilson was accidentally knocked into him during the Vikings-Dolphins game.
Wilson later described his incident as funny and said Hill was fine after he apologized. We should listen to the player involved before treating both exchanges as the same thing.
The officials’ union has acknowledged that the conduct fell below the required standard while challenging the severity of the punishments. It also wants abuse from players and coaches addressed. Fair enough. Officials should not have to accept personal abuse as part of the job.
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