The Buffalo Bills threw everyone off the scent in Week 1.
In the opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers, they weren’t good. The offense struggled, the special teams gave up a blocked punt touchdown and they lost. That loss isn’t aging well, either. However, it was just one game.
The Bills were a buzzy team before the season and then people moved on to the Los Angeles Rams or Dallas Cowboys or whoever else started the season well. The Bills are still as good as anyone in the NFL, just without a lot of fanfare.
Buffalo demolished the Houston Texans 40-0 for their third straight blowout win. The offense gets a lot of headlines in Buffalo, but it’s the defense that has been Super Bowl caliber.
The Texans’ first-half stats on Sunday: minus-23 net passing yards; 8 total yards; one first down. Houston trailed 16-0 at halftime, and it didn’t get much better in the second half.
We knew the Texans would have some bad days, but it’s still hard to beat an NFL team like the Bills did on Sunday. Rookie quarterback Davis Mills, who wasn’t awful in his first career start last week, was awful in Buffalo. He had 87 yards and threw four interceptions.
Since the first week, the Bills have won 35-0, 43-21 (that game against Washington wasn’t even that close) and then Sunday’s blowout by 40. A plus-97 point differential in three weeks is really hard to do in the NFL. The schedule has been light, and the Bills won’t get a lot of credit until they beat better competition, but the mark of a good team is blasting the worst teams on the schedule. The Bills are doing that. They have been doing it since the middle of last season.
Last season, the Bills’ offense carried the team to an AFC championship game, which they lost at Kansas City. This season the offense is still scoring and the defense looks like it did in 2018 and 2019, when it was one of the 10 best in the NFL. The Bills are still strong Super Bowl contenders. You just haven’t heard as much about them since Week 1.
Here are the winners and losers from Week 4 in the NFL:
WINNERS
Cordarrelle Patterson: Finally, we’re seeing the Patterson the Minnesota Vikings thought they were getting in the first round … eight years ago.
Patterson is becoming the Atlanta Falcons’ best offensive weapon. He had three touchdowns on Sunday against the Washington Football Team, even though it came in a 34-30 loss. Patterson had 116 total yards from scrimmage. He was touted as a versatile threat when he came out of the University of Tennessee, but has never had a huge impact on offense. He has been one of the best kickoff returners in the NFL for many years, but until this season it had never truly carried over to offense.
Patterson has carved out a nice career. He’s now having the rare 30-year-old breakout season.
Trevon Diggs‘ impressive streak: Diggs, the Dallas Cowboys cornerback, is becoming a heck of a playmaker.
Diggs had an interception in his fourth straight game to start the season, and it came at a crucial point in the Cowboys’ win. Diggs’ streak of interceptions ties the longest in team history.
Diggs’ pick came on a Sam Darnold pass over the middle with the Carolina Panthers trailing 26-14. Dallas immediately turned that pick into a Cedrick Wilson touchdown. Then Diggs had a great interception a few minutes later, driving hard on a short D.J. Moore route and pulling in a juggling interception. Carolina battled and Diggs’ picks were a huge difference in the 36-28 win.
Diggs was a second-round pick last year and started most of his rookie season. He has been a nice find and a big reason for the Cowboys’ 3-1 start.
Tyreek Hill: It had been a while since the Kansas City Chiefs blew anyone out.
The Philadelphia Eagles were the unlucky team on Sunday to face an angry Chiefs team that had lost two in a row. The Chiefs beat the Eagles 42-30, and it was a game Hill took over.
Hill had 11 catches, 186 yards and three touchdowns. Kansas City put up 471 yards. The defense didn’t look great but the offense did. When Hill is on top of his game, like he was on Sunday, Kansas City is just about unstoppable. The Chiefs just hadn’t shown their top gear in a long time.
Indianapolis Colts: The Colts might not be going anywhere this season, but an 0-4 start would have ensured their demise.
The Colts, who were dealing with numerous injuries heading into Sunday’s game at the Miami Dolphins, kept their season (somewhat) alive with an impressive win. Carson Wentz made some plays, Jonathan Taylor had his best game of the season and the defense looked its best. They got out of Miami with a 27-17 win.
There’s still a long way to go before the Colts are a factor again, but at least a Week 4 win gives them a chance to stay relevant.
LOSERS
Dan Campbell: Campbell is a competitor and he wants to win. It might take a while.
The Detroit Lions had a favorable matchup on Sunday and it didn’t matter much. The Chicago Bears looked much better than they did last week at Cleveland, and rolled to a fairly easy win. They were up 21-0, thanks to a big day from David Montgomery and an improved performance by rookie quarterback Justin Fields. The Bears won 24-14.
The Lions have been competitive most of this season, but they weren’t on Sunday and now they’re 0-4. It is going to be a long season, and it might be a while until they hit the win column.
Kirk Cousins and Mike Zimmer: The Minnesota Vikings are off to another bad start. Cousins will get heat after the Vikings scored just one touchdown in a 14-7 loss at home to the Cleveland Browns. Zimmer will get heat after his team is stumbling out of the gate again, this time at 1-3.
A win last week gave the Vikings some hope of turning around their season but it’s a lot tougher now. The Browns have a good defense but a team with Cousins, Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen and Dalvin Cook needs to score more than a touchdown at home. The Vikings had two chances in the final minutes to score and tie it, but Cousins was sacked on one fourth down and then the Vikings ran out of time on their final drive.
It’ll be a long week in Minnesota. Maybe a long season, too.
The up-and-down Saints: The Saints have looked great twice and awful twice. Good luck figuring out what happens next.
The Saints had an inexplicable loss on Sunday at home to a bad New York Giants team. They couldn’t put the Giants away in regulation, then allowed the Giants to drive all the way down and win it 27-21 in overtime on a Saquon Barkley touchdown.
The Saints are 2-2 and it’s impossible to figure out if they’re good or not.
Tennessee Titans: Even without A.J. Brown and Julio Jones, you can’t lose to the New York Jets and be taken seriously.
Randy Bullock’s 49-yard field-goal attempt in the final seconds of overtime missed wide left, which gave the Jets their first win of the season and spared everyone a tie. It was a brutal 27-24 loss for the Titans, who started 2-1 and are clearly the best team in the AFC South.
The Titans are still likely to win the division, but a bad loss Sunday and the Colts’ win at least makes things more interesting. Tennessee was without its two star receivers, but it’s still a loss the Titans shouldn’t take.
