2019-20 NFL (Week 4)

Games I saw some of:

Eagles 34-27 Packers
I thought the Packers moved the ball well at first but I wondered if their habit of getting FG's instead of TD's would catch up with them and it did. Once the Eagles figured out they could run the ball on the Packer D, that's all they did, endlessly pounding up the middle and the Eagles fairly well controlled this game through the 2nd half. Disappointing showing from the Packers but I suspect they're still a playoff team in the NFC; Eagles really needed this win, we'll see if this game gets them rolling.

Chiefs 34-30 Lions
I was pretty impressed with how effective the Lions D was with a 3-man rush, felt like it left a lot of running room for Mahomes, and while he did run a little bit, seems like that was more of an option for him than he wanted to take advantage of (though he did run for a 1st down on 4th-and-8 on the final drive, so I guess he was waiting for the right moment). The Chiefs lucked out with two Lion turnovers inside their red zone, otherwise this game might've been out of Mahomes' reach. The Chiefs offense is still the shit but perhaps this game gives opponents a blueprint with how to slow down that attack; tough L for the Lions, they were in control for much of the game, but not unexpected as the Chiefs are pretty awesome this season.

Browns 40-25 Ravens
The Ravens defense was lackluster to say the least in this game. The Browns finally found some balance in their attack and they moved the ball well throughout, but still I kept waiting for the Ravens to assert themselves and they never did. Not sure what to make of this result since it felt like the best possible Browns performance and the worst possible Ravens performances, so are the Browns ready to make a run or was this just a mirage? Will the Ravens get their shit together or will they flounder like this for a while? I dunno on either question.

Vikings 6-16 Bears
Defensive struggle game! The Vikings pretty well kept the Bears offense bottled up (though knocking out Mitchell Trubisky for Chase Daniel wasn't necessarily bad for the Bears) but not as well as the Bears D kept the Vikings bottled up. The Vikings offense stagnated badly, while the Bears were able to do enough to maintain the lead throughout. This division features four solid defenses (gotta figure the Packers have the best offense, right?) and this season is gonna be a rock fight til the end.  I still suspect the Vikings are the better team but marginally so (and Kirk Cousins is not inspiring much confidence). 

Cowboys 10-12 Saints
Good W for the Saints. I was really impressed with the Saints defense: Amari Cooper completely disappeared, Elliot never got going and Dak was kinda stuck searching for some help, especially in the 4th quarter. The Saints didn't get their high powered offense going (and suffered a brutally bad QB sack late in the 4th quarter that nearly gave the game away) but they possessed well and moved well enough to take down a top flight offense with 4 FG's. Great W for the Saints and considering the turmoil in their division, they've still got a great shot at bye in the playoffs; tough loss for the Cowboys but ideally this game will teach them a thing or two about varying up their offense.


Games I saw none of:

Titans 24-10 Falcons
Hmmm...the Falcons should be well positioned to make moves in their sloppy division but if they can't get a W at home against the Titans, then where are the wins gonna come from? The Titans are the quintessential 8-8 team: good enough to avoid being terrible but not good enough to get into the post-season; this is a pretty great W for them and keeps them afloat in their sloppy division.

Pats 16-10 Bills
The Bills only gave up a single offensive TD to the Pats and that's a notable achievement, it shows that that Bills D is legit. That said, traditionally the Pats have not brought their A-game to Buffalo, so this could just be an eked-out W by design. I'm not blown away by the Pats attack this year and while that D is top notch, it feels like they've lost a step this year.

Raiders 31-24 Colts
The Raiders play hard every week and in the NFL that's a laudable achievement that will occasionally steal a W; the Colts are still a work in progress--and may have been overrated to begin with--but they still should've expected a W at home against the Raiders, this is disappointing.

Chargers 30-10 Dolphins
Kinda thought the Dolphins would slow them down a little bit but this result isn't a shock by any means.

Redskins 3-24 Giants
The Redskins are just a lifeless squad, I'm expecting that coach to be fired any minute now. The Giants have reasonable talent on both sides and perhaps the breath of fresh air at QB is all they need to compete (that's not out of the question, you know, this team might actually be good).

Panthers 16-10 Texans
The Texans should win non-conference home games against 2nd-string QB's...I don't feel like that is a controversial thing to say. Good W for the Panthers, road wins are always a good thing.

Bucs 55-40 Rams
I'm not super shocked that the Rams would fall asleep and lose a home game to a lesser squad, I can even see them really getting tagged on the scoreboard...but where on earth did the Bucs find 55 points? How many more points are they gonna score this season? I'm still not a believer in the Bucs, they still look a Bad News Bears-at best kinda squad. As for the Rams, well, they're good but not dominant and they're quite capable of gacking up a howler to a so-so squad. 

Seahawks 27-10 Cards
I kinda thought the Cards would give their division opponent a tougher contest but looks like they didn't get any offense going. Still not sure about the Seahawks: a good coach and a good QB can win games they shouldn't, so while this is a good W, I'm not sure how telling it is about their skills.

Jags 26-24 Broncos
The Broncos are this year's example of a team that is almost there but just doesn't seem to able to get it done late in the game. In tennis you can see a scoreline of 6-0, 6-0 and think that one guy dominated the other guy when in fact every single point may well have been harshly contested. Football is game of inches and this Bronco team seems a few inches short. Nice W for the Jags, road wins are always good and their young QB is looking like the real deal. 

Bengals 3-27 Steelers
Division games are either the easiest games or the toughest, a great opportunity for troubled teams to pull it together against a familiar opponent. I kinda thought this was a good chance for the Bengals to sting an old rival and maybe get something going, but it looks like the Steelers took that scenario for their own advantage and controlled the Bengals throughout. Are the Steelers ready to roll? Uh...I doubt it but every W is a good W.