NFL 2021: The Week 4 thread

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Never mind what I said a week ago. Week 3 turned out to be a great weekend of football — lots of drama and several incredible milestones.

Such as:

"It bounces off the crossbar ... and IT'S GOOD! OH MY GOODNESS!"

Justin Tucker, ladies and gentlemen. His 66-yard FG won the game (Ravens 19, Lions 17) and gave Tucker the All-Time Longest FG crown, which he'll probably wear for a while. Here's the end zone angle if you haven't seen it.

Here are two more bonkers things about that kick.

First: In 1970, Tom Dempsey kicked it 63 yards (and held the record for 43 years) to give the Saints a last-second win over the Lions. That score? 19-17.

Second: The record had been held by Matt Prater, who booted it 64 yards for Denver in 2013. If you wondering whatever happened to Matt Prater, here he is about an hour earlier on Sunday, wearing No. 5 for the Cardinals:

Gus Johnson is a national treasure, ain't he?

Meanwhile, Jamal Agnew's 109-yard return tied a record for longest play. Two other guys have gone 109 yards: Cordarrelle Patterson, who in 2013 returned a kick for the Vikings against Green Bay; and Antonio Cromartie, who had a kick six for the Chargers in 2007 against the Vikings.

Agnew's record run was the first 109-yard play that didn't take place in the Metrodome (RIP).

Speaking of Patterson (and also speaking of the Vikings), here's Patterson's best kick return, a 104-yard gem last season for Chicago against Minnesota. The live sky cam view is *chef's kiss*.

Also Sunday:

* Patrick Mahomes got to 15,000 passing yards faster than anyone else in history — 49 games. The previous fastest was 53 for one Matthew "Matt" Stafford.

The Chargers wunderkind who beat Mahomes on Sunday is not (yet) on pace to beat Mahomes in this contest. Justin Herbert has thrown for nearly 5,300 yards in 18 games. At his current 294-yards-per-game pace, Herbert will be at 14,406 yards after Game No. 49 and won't hit 15,000 until Game No. 52. If Herbert can squeeze out a few 400-yard games over the next two seasons, he might beat Mahomes' pace.

* Congrats (sarcastically) to the Dolphins, who managed to give up the first safety in NFL history "on a completed pass with no penalties or fumbles." That's why you don't throw a screen pass in your own end zone.

* Congrats (seriously) to Bucs QB Tom Brady, who became the second human to pass for more than 80K yards in the NFL. Expect him to break the record Sunday night. I'm sure no one really cares much about where the game is being played or who the Bucs are playing or anything. Hope the game will be on TV!

* Chicago QB Justin Fields was sacked 9 (!!!!!!) times Sunday, the most in game since 2015. The Bears, meanwhile, had one net passing yard (68 yards gained by Fields, 67 yards lost on sacks). You can watch all nine sacks here if you're the kind of person who kicks puppies and old ladies and laughed at that earlier video of that old man falling down.

* Lastly, here's The Ringer on Sunday's collective performance of the 2021 QB class that was a month ago was considered one of the best in recent memory:

The four rookie starters combined to go 77-for-140 passing for 717 yards, two touchdowns, and seven interceptions. That adds up to a 53.2 passer rating and 5.1 yards per attempt, both of which would’ve been dead last in the NFL last season. The last time a quarterback started at least five games and had a passer rating lower than 53.2 was in 2009, when both JaMarcus Russell and Derek Anderson did it.

That's right: Lawrence, Wilson, Lance (tho he barely counts), Fields and McCorkle are in JaMarcus territory. Yikes.

STAT OF THE WEEK

The starting D-linemen in the Buffalo-WFT were all first-round draft picks. That's the first time that has happened since the AFL/NFL merger in 1970s.

Bills: Greg Rousseau (No. 30 in 2021), Star Lotulelei (No. 14 in 2013/Panthers), Ed Oliver (No. 9 in 2019/Texans), Jerry Hughes (No. 31 in 2010/Colts)

WFT: Chase Young (No. 2 in 2020), Daron Payne (No. 13 in 2018), Jonathan Allen (No. 17 in 2017), Montez Sweat (No. 26 in 2019)

VIDEOS OF THE WEEK

Here's something you don't see every day: Nick Bosa getting knocked on his ass. (Sorry this is a Twitter vid, but I couldn't find a GIF or YouTube vid.) The Packers did a nice job Sunday of keeping Rodgers upright.

Here's something you've seen a lot if you watch the YouTube and the TikTok: olds falling down. Playing the role of Old Man Falling Down is Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger:

POWER RANKINGS

This week's edition is courtesy of USA Today:

1. Rams (2 last week)

2. Bucs (1)

3. Browns (4)

4. Raiders (6)

5. Cardinals (5)

Biggest riser: Chargers (+9 to No. 9)

Biggest faller: Steelers (-12 to No. 20)

WEEK 4 SCHEDULE

(Here are your coverage maps for Sunday's games.)

Thursday night: Jags at Bengals (NFL Network)

Sunday early: Titans at Jets, Chiefs at Eagles, THE THREE AND O CAROLINA PANTHERS at Cowboys, Giants at Saints, Browns at Vikings (Stefanski Bowl), Lions at Bears (of the NFC Norris), Texans at Bills, Colts at Dolphins (old AFC East matchup), Washington at Falcons

Sunday late: Seahawks at Niners, Cardinals at Rams, Steelers at Packers (CBS Game of the Week), Ravens at Broncos

Sunday night: ***** BRADY VERSUS BELICHICK ***** (aka Bucs at Pats)

Monday night: Raiders at Chargers; no ManningCast this week (until Week 7)

GRAPHIC OF THE WEEK

Because Week 4 will be all about Tom Brady (because he'll almost certainly become the NFL's all-time passing against his old team and in his former stadium), we're going to go ahead and bandwagon it with this cool graphic of all the dudes Brady has thrown TD passes to (including the playoffs):

IMAGE(https://i.redd.it/jmi0fmt8ewo71.png)

Buckle up, folks. Week 4 will be wild.

My late game match-up of the week is Fox versus NFL Red Zone.

Enix wrote:

1. Rams (2 last week)

2. Bucs (1)

3. Browns (4)

When is this Browns nonsense going to stop? They beat Houston and Chicago. Both those teams are 1-2, with wins over 0-3 Jax and 0-3 Bengals, respectively. They only softer schedule they could have is if they played Jax and Cincy themselves. Oh sh*t, they get 2 division games against CIncy. Ugh. It's never going to stop.

Enix wrote:

Ravens at Broncos

AKA Louisville bowl. And why isn't that game of the week? Packers are going to beat the Steelers by 4 TDs at least.

Stele wrote:
Enix wrote:

1. Rams (2 last week)

2. Bucs (1)

3. Browns (4)

When is this Browns nonsense going to stop? They beat Houston and Chicago. Both those teams are 1-2, with wins over 0-3 Jax and 0-3 Bengals, respectively. They only softer schedule they could have is if they played Jax and Cincy themselves. Oh sh*t, they get 2 division games against CIncy. Ugh. It's never going to stop.

Enix wrote:

Ravens at Broncos

AKA Louisville bowl. And why isn't that game of the week? Packers are going to beat the Steelers by 4 TDs at least.

Because ratings. The Steelers and Packers have national fan bases and the other two don't.

As for the power ratings, yeah, I agree, they're silly. The Panthers are No. 11 in the USAT rankings and top 10 elsewhere. Carolina has played an even softer schedule: The Jets, the 1999 Mike Ditka's Last Year Saints and a squad called the Texans, which was promoted to the NFL this season after winning the Big 12 in 2020.

Enix wrote:

* Chicago QB Justin Fields was sacked 9 (!!!!!!) times Sunday, the most in game since 2015. The Bears, meanwhile, had one net passing yard (68 yards gained by Fields, 67 yards lost on sacks). You can watch all nine sacks here if you're the kind of person who kicks puppies and old ladies and laughed at that earlier video of that old man falling down.

Better viewing option: JT O’Sullivan breaks down all 9 sacks on The QB School:

Saw that Brady graphic on Reddit a couple weeks ago. Thought Moss' position on it was hilarious given how short his time in New England was.

Moss was with Brady two seasons (with the Cassel year in between). Branch had four years and only had 75% of the TDs. Welker five and Edelman 10 to get roughly as many.

Enix wrote:
Stele wrote:

AKA Louisville bowl. And why isn't that game of the week? Packers are going to beat the Steelers by 4 TDs at least.

Because ratings. The Steelers and Packers have national fan bases and the other two don't.

Yeah I know. But do ratings matter when everyone stops watching at halftime?

And Seachickens vs Niners should be national game, but not FOX's week this week. What silliness.

Maybe they'll switch over to the Cards alumni game after Big Ben falls down again and the Pack are winning big.

*Legion* wrote:
Enix wrote:

* Chicago QB Justin Fields was sacked 9 (!!!!!!) times Sunday, the most in game since 2015. The Bears, meanwhile, had one net passing yard (68 yards gained by Fields, 67 yards lost on sacks). You can watch all nine sacks here if you're the kind of person who kicks puppies and old ladies and laughed at that earlier video of that old man falling down.

Better viewing option: JT O’Sullivan breaks down all 9 sacks on The QB School:

JT does the best analysis.

Stele wrote:
Enix wrote:

1. Rams (2 last week)

2. Bucs (1)

3. Browns (4)

When is this Browns nonsense going to stop?

Probably this week when the Browns revert to type and choke away a winnable game against a Minn team we should comp stomp.

I mean, we should have beaten the Chiefs but for one of my favorite Browns punters (and thats something I thought I would never say) botching a kick (which is something I say a lot with the browns)and then Mahommes calling upon whatever deal with the devil he made that turns every pass would be an interception from any other QB into a TD. But, it's the Chiefs.

Then we beat a Houston team who was playing their third string quarterback whose name sounds like a now defunct department store my mom drug me to as a kid to get school clothes, after Tyrod got hurt and Watson is... ummm... not playing?

And this week we beat a Chicago with rookie QB whose coach designed a playbook that 1) wasn't built for him, 2) wasn't built to keep any QB safe, and 3) wasn't competently constructed. I liked Fields more than any of the other QBs in the draft, but not if he is going to get sacked NINE TIMES every game.

So CLE is 2-1. You could convince we we should be 3-0. You could also convince me if Houston and Chicago were in the least bit competently ran we should be 0-3. But I think 2-1 is about right.

And thankfully, power rankings are meaningless in the NFL, as, unlike other professional football organizations in the US, the NFL uses actual games to sort things out.

Paleocon wrote:

JT does the best analysis.

7:07 mark: "8 looks like he's half hour late off the snap, and he gets in the way of whatever the left tackle is trying to do here. I'm unfamiliar with that technique."

I am fascinated by how there seems to be a solid career path for very marginal NFL QB to successful QB guru and how guys like JT O'Sullivan and Jordan Palmer have really built little cottage industries. I mean, it makes a lot of sense that the backup QBs are the guys who learn the game better and turn into coaches, as holding a clipboard means you've got a lot more time to analyze the offense and learn stuff in general, but seeing these guys keep popping up is kind of amusing.

Also, JT O'Sullivan is apparently good at this, and, wow, was that some terrible . . . everything by the Bears. Love the bit around 23:00 in where he points out the Bears are running five-man protection, and there are sven Browns defenders on the line. It's tragically hilarious to watch that video over and over again as he runs the tape.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

I mean, it makes a lot of sense that the backup QBs are the guys who learn the game better and turn into coaches, as holding a clipboard means you've got a lot more time to analyze the offense and learn stuff in general

Well that, and guys like this tend to be the QBs who didn't exactly have the most glowing athletic profiles. They stayed in the league for years specifically because they were football smart and could go out onto the field with no notice and execute the offense.

Also, I think one of the things that makes JT so good is that his analysis comes with a large dose of humility. He knows exactly how hard it is to do anything out on an NFL field, and he chooses his words carefully, very much the opposite of the typical ex-player running their mouth. He errs on the side of understatement in an arena where overstatement is the default.

And speaking of football smarts, I liked what Draw Play Dave said about Eli Manning and the MNF broadcasts:

Eli delivers some insight into plays too. More than you might expect from him, with Eli’s dumb face and reputation seeing him accurately describe complex routes and defensive schemes reminds you that even a guy who looks and occasionally played like a dumbass didn’t reach the highest highs of his profession by sheer accident.

I'm enjoying dissecting how bad the Bears are.

Great week in special teams. My personal favorite was:

WHY DID LEGION NEVER POST ABOUT DEREK CAR??

IMAGE(https://www.thedrawplay.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Raiders-1.jpg)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/Xp1ixWB.jpg)

The only thing that might be better than this show is going to be watching white people's heads exploding over it.

My head is gonna explode... if we don't get a single "Inglewood always up to no good" out of Dre when he's right there.

Really hoping it goes old-school and the entire halftime show is just one long beeeeeeeeeeep as every single word gets bleeped out.

f*ck yeah

Eminem looks like Aaron Rodgers.

Man I hope Urban Meyer embarrasses himself tonight on national TV.

Who thought NFL fans would ask for Bengals-Jags on TNF?

I think nfl fans asked for a night off and this is what they came up with.

Less Brady love fest here please… I’m gonna hurl. Wtf did I tune into TB Sports Radio?

Enix wrote:

Who thought NFL fans would ask for Bengals-Jags on TNF?

Why do you think they announced the halftime line-up today?

Rat Boy wrote:
Enix wrote:

Who thought NFL fans would ask for Bengals-Jags on TNF?

Why do you think they announced the halftime line-up today?

When they show Urban Meyer celebrating something, it looks like he was unaware something was happening and is trying to figure out why everyone else is happy.

4th and goal from the 1/2 yard line, sure, go for it.

But QB run out of the shotgun?

*Legion* wrote:

4th and goal from the 1/2 yard line, sure, go for it.

But QB run out of the shotgun?

Bengals get to the 1/2 yard line and run it in on a Burrow sneak from under center.

What an ingenious playcall, how do they come up with this stuff?

*Legion* wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

4th and goal from the 1/2 yard line, sure, go for it.

But QB run out of the shotgun?

Bengals get to the 1/2 yard line and run it in on a Burrow sneak from under center.

What an ingenious playcall, how do they come up with this stuff?

This post didn't age well. haha

ukickmydog wrote:

This post didn't age well. haha

Yeah, well neither did the Jags’ lead.

Ravens receivers have an 11+% drop rate. Highest in the NFL. Next nearest is just over 8%.

They have to give Lamar tools.

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