NFL scores and more, Week 4: What happened in the NFL on Sunday

The NFC South, a division that put a 7-8-1 team in the playoffs last year, became the only division in the NFL with two 4-0 teams, as Atlanta rolled over the Texans and the Panthers knocked off the Bucs. The Packers remained the clear top dog in the NFC, though, by dominating San Francisco on the road and also improving to 4-0.

Elsewhere in the North, perhaps Chicago fans just needed a week without Jay Cutler to fully better appreciate their franchise quarterback. After witnessing their Jimmy Clausen-led team punt on 10 straight offensive drives and score zero points last week in Seattle, Cutler provided a spark for Chicago’s offense to help upset the red-hot Raiders. Cutler didn’t set the world on fire with 281 yards passing, two touchdowns and one pick, but he stepped up when it counted to lead a 12-play, 48-yard drive in the final two minutes of the game to set up the Robbie Gould game-winning field goal.

The fact that Cutler gutted out a tough hamstring injury to start for Chicago came as an inspiration to his teammates, and when asked if his quarterback is too often criticized, the always entertaining Martellus Bennett compared Cutler to Jesus: “They threw rocks at Jesus, and Jesus was an excellent guy who did a lot of awesome stuff.”

It’s just general enough to work, I guess?

Meanwhile, the Rams continue to be the most perplexing team in the NFL. They started out the year with a big upset of the division rival Seahawks at home, then promptly lost in Washington. They returned home and lost to a depleted Steelers team, then headed on the road to play probably the hottest team in the league in Arizona. Their “cushion of death” strategy -- playing way, way off the line of scrimmage and keeping everything out in front of them -- ended up working pretty well and the three turnovers they caused spurred them to the upset victory.

The star of the game was rookie Todd Gurley, who ran for 146 yards -- including 106 in the 4th quarter as the Rams looked to put it away -- and Tavon Austin wasn’t shabby either, finishing with six catches for 96 yards and two touchdowns.

You never really know which Rams team you’re going to get, but Sunday’s version included huge performances from Gurley, Austin, and Aaron Donald -- so it’s big to see some of their investments starting to pay off. Credit too goes to Jeff Fisher, who seems to know how to beat the NFC West but no one else.

Similarly, would you believe me if I told you that the Giants have won two in a row, are plus-20 in net points and are sitting there tied for first place (disregarding early tie breakers) in the mess of the NFC East? New York might have been an afterthought in the always drama-filled division before the season began, but Eli Manning, Odell Beckham Jr. and company are quietly asserting themselves -- and the defense hasn’t been half-bad either.

New York’s next five include a cluster of struggling and/or depleted teams -- the 49ers, Eagles, Cowboys, Saints and Buccaneers. How crazy would it be if we’re looking at a 7-2 Giants team after Week 9? Of course, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, the Giants haven’t exactly been predictable.

On the other hand, Cincinnati remained the model of consistency and ran away with their fourth straight win to start the season. Andy Dalton and company knocked off the Chiefs at home, cementing themselves atop the AFC North and among the AFC’s elite.

Ravens 23, Steelers 20 (Thursday)
Jets 27, Dolphins, 14 (London)
Washington 23, Eagles 20
Panthers 37, Buccaneers 23
Bears 22, Raiders 20
Falcons 48, Texans 21
Bengals 36, Chiefs 21
Giants 24, Bills 10
Colts 16, Jaguars 13 (OT)
Chargers 30, Browns 27
Rams 24, Cardinals 22
Broncos 23, Vikings 20
Packers 17, 49ers 3
Saints 26, Cowboys 20 (OT)

In what was an incredibly bad week for kickers, Chiefs kicker Cairo Santos hit all seven of his attempts and most likely won quite a few games for savvy/lucky fantasy owners. But let’s be honest, you don’t care about what a kicker did.

One of the biggest producers this week was veteran Buccaneers receiver Vincent Jackson who caught 10 passes for 147 yards and a touchdown. As Tampa Bay endeavored to spread the ball around to players not named Mike Evans, Jackson was the beneficiary, and Jameis Winston wasn’t afraid to look his way. It feels like Jackson has been slept on a little bit over the past year or two because of the sketchy or unpredictable nature of Tampa Bay’s quarterback situation, but the dude is still one of the best receivers in the NFL even at 32 years old, and is always a threat in the red zone, which amplifies his value in fantasy week to week.

It also doesn’t hurt that it’s likely the Bucs will be trailing in many/all of their games this year and will be looking to pass first. If players in your league had given up on Jackson after an exceedingly tepid start, now may be the time to pounce.

Big congrats to Drew Brees, who dropped the mike with an 80-yard touchdown strike to C.J. Spiller in overtime to seal the win for the Saints. It just so happened to be his 400th career touchdown pass. Brees is the fifth NFL player to reach that milestone, and he became the fastest to reach it in the history of the NFL (205 games). Brees is also one of three players with 5,000 career completions.

Devonta Freeman is on an absolute tear of (relative) historic proportions. For some context of what the second-year Falcons running back is doing, consider this: Freeman became the first running back to rush for seven touchdowns in his team’s first four games since LaDainian Tomlinson did it in 2005. He matched another Tomlinson mark with his back-to-back three-touchdown games, the first running back to do that since the future Hall of Famer did it 2006. Freeman started out the season playing second fiddle to Tevin Coleman because of injuries, but now that he’s up to full speed there’s not much doubt he’ll be the lead back going forward.

Meanwhile, the Niners continued to struggle, and offensively it starts first and foremost with Colin Kaepernick. Per ESPN Stats and Info, the embattled signal caller completed just three passes that went more than five yards against the Packers, and despite having a cannon for an arm, Kaepernick and the Niners’ offense just can’t get anything going downfield. Torrey Smith, who signed during the offseason for $40 million and has been one of the most dangerous downfield threats in the NFL over the past few years, has just nine catches in four games.

Meanwhile, it looks like Sam Bradford and the Eagles finally figured out how to throw the ball deep. Bradford, who was 0 for 5 on passes of 20 yards or more downfield in his first three games, went 4 for 8 with two touchdowns in a losing effort against Washington on Sunday.

“Two years ago we set an NFL record for explosive plays,” Kelly said. “Now no one plays those coverages. People play off and back of us. They play off and back of us for the last two years. You’re not throwing the ball down the field when no one’s allowing us to throw down the field because they’re playing back off of you. The DBs lined up at 10 yards deep, why are you trying to throw the ball deep? That’s silly.”

Well, Bradford and Philly bucked those trends and Bradford hit on two of those big plays this week.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

It ended up not being enough on Sunday, but if the Eagles plan on turning their season around, this might end up being a stat to watch.

Meanwhile, in the realm of weird stats: Alex Smith passed for a career-high 386 yards but the Chiefs failed to score an offensive touchdown. This is the third-highest passing total without a touchdown in NFL history.