Things That Made Me Giddy
Kyler Murray Is Operating at Another Level: You can look at what, for instance, Patrick Mahomes does in Kansas City or Josh Allen does in Buffalo, and see how—talent aside—the scheme also lifts them up. In Murray’s case, he is consistently tasked with lifting the scheme to make the offense work. On Sunday, Arizona was staked to a two-possession lead in large part to Murray creating magic to convert two third-and-longs in the first half. He’s carrying his offense in a way that no other quarterback has to, and at the not-quite-quarter-mark of the season, he’s clearly the league’s most valuable player.
The Browns’ Four-Man Pass Rush Makes Everything Irrelevant: They have talent in the back seven, and there’s a chance they’d need some time to build chemistry there, but right now it doesn’t matter. This Cleveland front four is absolutely wrecking opponents through four weeks, and everything they're doing defensively has a strong “2019 49ers” vibe to it.
The Vikings and Browns Defenses Knew What Was Coming: Those units practice against the exact same offense everyday. That’s how you end up with a 14–7 game.
Zach Wilson, Directing That Traffic: He had some absolutely infuriating misfires on routine throws against the Titans, but he also had a number of impressive—and just downright fun—plays out of structure. These are the actions of an almost delusionally confident quarterback, and considering how the first three starts of his career went, that’s a very good sign:
Packers Show They Can Slog Through One: Granted, this Pittsburgh offense is still very much stuck in the mud. But the Steelers defense made this one ugly, and the Packers were breathing easy after a couple of second-quarter touchdowns.
Clearly, Abracadaniel Has Arrived: In New Orleans, the Giants finally played offensive football like a team with nothing left to lose (mostly because that’s what they were coming into Sunday). You saw more forward-thinking uses for Saquon Barkley, Kadarius Toney was a big part of the gameplan and was consistently impressive after the catch, and Kenny Golladay looked fully healthy and borderline dominant. You could see the signs even in a disjointed offense through the first three weeks of the season, but after throwing for 402 yards on 40 attempts in the Superdome (his lone turnover was a Hail Mary at the end of the first half), it’s clear: As long as the coaching staff allows it, Daniel Jones is ready to become a franchise QB.
Saquon Barkley, In Full: The Giants used him as a passing-game mismatch piece a couple times on Sunday—not nearly as often as they should, but still… That included a 54-yard touchdown catch on which he caused the coverage bust by lining up wide (in defense of the Saints’ secondary, based on tendencies they were right to expect that he wouldn’t run a route more than five yards beyond the line of scrimmage). While his game-winning touchdown run was more traditional, it was a fitting end to the game in which the Giants might have finally discovered how Barkley can and should be used.
The Ravens, In Spite of It All, Are 3–1: With all the injuries and the narrow escapes the past two weeks, it seems Baltimore is walking a bit of a tightrope. But going into Denver (even if the Broncos were a bit of an underwhelming 3–0 and had to go to Drew Lock in the second half) and controlling the game like they did is the kind of thing an impressive team does. The Ravens defense, even with some key players missing, looked like its vintage self on Sunday.
The Seahawks Catch the Breaks They Need: The offense will be fine, but their defense is still desperately searching for answers, and an in-game injury to an opposing starting quarterback (and the four points San Francisco left on the field because the kicker got injured pre-game), was enough to buy them a free win and one more week to look for solutions.
Bears Offense, Better: Still not , or , but definitely . It helps to play against a team with zero pass rush on defense and an insatiable thirst for empty red-zone trips.
How Many Cordarrelle Patterson Touchdown Catches Are Too Many Cordarrelle Patterson Touchdown Catches?: Let me know, because he had three on Sunday.
Big Ben Going After… Jaire Alexander?: Turning back the clock for career touchdown pass No. 400.
