A 58-yard kick with two seconds left. A win without an offensive touchdown. An undefeated team knocked off at home. If you wanted quiet in NFL Week 4, you picked the wrong weekend.
The week started Thursday with the Dallas Cowboys handling the New York Giants and spilled into Sunday chaos. Atlanta edged New Orleans on the kind of box score you almost never see. Pittsburgh’s perfect start cracked. Tampa Bay bullied Philadelphia. Cincinnati finally exhaled. Meanwhile, Minnesota and Seattle kept their records clean and their doubts quiet—for now.
How games turned—and what it tells us
The Falcons beat the Saints the hard way. Younghoe Koo drilled a career-long 58-yarder with two ticks left, but the headline came earlier: Atlanta became the first team since Sept. 26, 2004, to win without scoring an offensive touchdown. That takes a defense that plays fast and a special teams unit that doesn’t blink. Inside linebacker Troy Andersen delivered the signature plays, jumping a route for a pick-six, knifing into the backfield for a stop, and closing passing windows when it mattered. Atlanta leaned on field position, avoided the big mistake, and won the margins.
New Orleans will stew over missed chances. When you’re facing a team that can’t find the end zone on offense, any red-zone stall, turnover, or penalty becomes a gut punch. The Saints’ defense did its job for long stretches, but a single defensive score tilts the math and pressure compounds. Atlanta didn’t chase style points. It chased points, period, and rode Koo’s leg and a swarming front seven to a win that plays in any weather, any month.
In Pittsburgh, the Colts flipped the AFC script with a road upset that doubled as a stress test the Steelers failed. Through three weeks, Pittsburgh hid its soft spots with timely takeaways and explosive moments. The Colts forced Pittsburgh into obvious passing downs and let their front take over. That exposed pass protection cracks and slowed the Steelers’ rhythm. One loss won’t bury a season, but it will shove some uncomfortable questions to the top of the meeting agenda.
Tampa Bay didn’t just beat Philadelphia; it controlled the game. Baker Mayfield was decisive and aggressive, throwing for 347 yards and accounting for three total touchdowns while completing 30 of 47. Mike Evans won at the catch point and after it (8 catches, 94 yards, a score), and the Bucs’ offense stayed on schedule. The other side was just as loud: Philadelphia’s talent is obvious, but the ball security issues linger. Jalen Hurts is pressing at times, trying to force windows that aren’t there. That’s a fixable problem—until it isn’t. Against a team that tackles and rallies, every miscue becomes two: the yardage lost and the clock you can’t get back.
In Cincinnati, the Bengals finally broke serve. Joe Burrow didn’t need fireworks; he needed efficiency and a clean sheet. He delivered: 22-of-31, 232 yards, two touchdowns, and steady drives that looked like the Bengals of the last two years. They leaned on structure—quick game, defined reads, and trust in a deep receiver room. Carolina rode Chuba Hubbard (18 carries, 104 yards) and found chunks on the ground, but it wasn’t enough to match Cincinnati’s balance. For a team that opened 0-3, a workmanlike win beats a messy thriller. The Bengals needed to feel normal again. They did.
Zooming out, a few early truths hardened. Minnesota’s 3-0 start isn’t fluky when you stack clean situational football on top of a quarterback who protects the ball and a defense that limits explosives. Seattle’s undefeated run has a similar shape: a defense that looks organized and fast, and an offense that doesn’t blink in late-game moments. Those aren’t headline-grabbing traits in September. They win you games in December.
As always, the fine print mattered. Third downs and the red zone decided tight games. Special teams swung field position and, in Atlanta’s case, the scoreboard. Coaching choices—when to lean into aggression, when to bleed clock—showed up in expected points and, more importantly, in the stress on opposing quarterbacks. Week 4 measured not just who’s good, but who’s adaptable.
Team-by-team questions after Week 4
- Cowboys: The Thursday win over the Giants looked businesslike, which is exactly what Dallas needed after a choppy stretch of play-calling debates. The next step is consistency against teams that can match their speed up front.
- Giants: Protection remains the storyline. Until New York finds answers on the edges and in blitz pickups, it’s hard to fairly judge the ceiling of the passing game.
- Falcons: The formula—defense, field position, and a money kicker—travels. Can the offense stack first downs and lighten the load on a unit that just carried them to a rare kind of win?
- Saints: Missed opportunities define the loss. The defense graded out fine, but the offense has to answer when the opponent can’t score on its own. That’s where explosives and a reliable short-yardage package matter.
- Steelers: The Colts poked the bruise: pass protection under stress and third-and-long volume. Pittsburgh needs early-down variety to protect the pocket and keep the playbook open.
- Colts: This was a physical, credible win. The front set the tone, the offense avoided giveaways, and the sideline management felt calm. That’s a repeatable identity in the AFC middle class.
- Buccaneers: Mayfield’s chemistry with Evans is real, and the timing game is on time. The bigger deal is complementary football—defense getting stops and the offense paying them off. That’s how you jump tiers.
- Eagles: Talent isn’t the concern; turnover hygiene is. If Hurts and the offense trim the giveaways, the ceiling returns. If not, the margin for error in the NFC shrinks fast.
- Bengals: Burrow’s efficiency thawed a frozen start. The next checkpoint is chunk plays without forcing them—take what’s there, then strike when coverage tilts.
- Panthers: The run game found daylight with Hubbard, but the defense needs more disruption on money downs. Otherwise, efficient offenses will nickel-and-dime them to death.
- Vikings: Clean operation, few freebies, and a defense that understands leverage. If they keep games out of shootout mode, their unblemished start has legs.
- Seahawks: Unbeaten with a defense that looks faster and a quarterback who’s comfortable in the structure. The test ahead is handling a game when the script flips and the run game stalls.
There were ripple effects across the standings. Tampa Bay’s win didn’t just add a tally; it reset perceptions in the NFC South, where one-score margins and tiebreakers will likely decide seeding. Atlanta’s win over New Orleans did the same, separating styles as much as records. In the AFC, the Colts’ upset put a spotlight on a wide middle class that can trade wins all season, which makes tiebreakers, divisional records, and conference mark even more critical.
Several coaching staffs deserve quiet credit. Atlanta’s willingness to play the field-position game, resist fourth-and-long temptation, and trust its defense kept the path to three points open all afternoon. Indianapolis managed situations with a veteran temperament—no panic, no hero ball. Tampa Bay mixed shot plays with high-percentage throws and let Mayfield keep rhythm. All of that sounds simple. It usually isn’t in a league where momentum swings with a tipped pass.
Quarterback narratives shifted, too. Mayfield put a stamp on an early-season resurgence with anticipation throws and pocket toughness. Burrow reminded everyone that efficiency wins just as loud as fireworks. Hurts has a clear fix-it list that starts with ball security and ends with tempo. In Pittsburgh, the conversation returns to structure: get ahead of the sticks, or pay the price.
Special teams deserve more than a cameo. Koo’s leg changed the math before the snap—New Orleans knew any drive into plus territory could become points. Coverage units across the league stole hidden yards that most box scores won’t show. In a week of one-score games, those yards are the difference between taking a knee and chasing a miracle.
As for the unbeatens, context matters. Early undefeated teams aren’t crowned; they’re studied. Minnesota and Seattle have won with discipline and restraint, which is exactly how you build an October-to-January runway. Sustainable is the key word: few penalties, secure tackling, and offenses that don’t gift short fields.
Power rankings and playoff models will nudge accordingly. Tampa Bay moves from curiosity to contender tier in most projections. Indianapolis earns a real promotion, not a courtesy bump. Pittsburgh slides, but not off the map. Philadelphia dips on form but not on talent—the fix is internal. Cincinnati climbs out of the basement of their own expectations, which might be the most important leap of all.
Week 4 didn’t settle anything. It rarely does. What it did was sharpen the edges: which teams know who they are, which ones are still searching, and which games in October will carry tiebreaker weight in January. That’s the league in a nutshell—small edges, big moods, and one kick from 58 yards that can rewrite a Sunday.
