What a night from @JaredGoff16! ?
26/33 for 465 yards, 5 TDs + a perfect passer rating of 158.3 ? pic.twitter.com/ta239eCtyu
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) September 28, 2018
Mercy, this is getting ridiculous.
We just got finished talking about how pass defense is now illegal in the NFL last week. And all Los Angeles Rams QB Jared Goff does is put up the most pass attempts in league history in a perfect passer rating game. I am appalled.
But that’s not all!!! This happened:
The @ChicagoBears quarterback threw SIX touchdowns, including five in the first half.@Mtrubisky10 was UNSTOPPABLE in Week 4! ??? #TBvsCHI #DaBears pic.twitter.com/yu3h0LvqAg
— NFL (@NFL) September 30, 2018
Get out of this world. Rookie True Biscuit needed 330 attempts to score seven TD passes last season. He only had two TD passes in the first three starts of this season (104 attempts). But True Biscuit had not seen the venetian blinds that make up the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense. Five of those six TD passes came in the first half – to five different receivers! Unreal.
Observers of that game may have noticed that Tampa Bay took the opportunity to bench QB Ryan Fitzpatrick with QB Jameis Winston available from suspension. Politics as usual! It was the first game Fitzpatrick did not pass for 400 yards. What have you done for me lately!
Do you want more proof that 400 yards, multiple TDs, and no INTs does not mean automatic win? Look at Atlanta QB Matt Ryan, who followed up his Week 3 performance of 374 pass yards, 5 TD, and 0 INTs with 419 pass yards, 3 pass TDs, and 0 INTs. Ryan’s Falcons lost both games.
Ah, let’s look at another passer who put up those numbers in Week 4: Indianapolis QB Andrew Luck. 464 pass yards, 4 TD passes, 0 INT – but that 62nd pass attempt is all anyone will talk about. Indianapolis head coach Frank Reich, offensive coordinator of the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, decided we all did not need to see another tie in the month of September. So Reich went for it in overtime in his own territory, and Luck’s fourth down pass attempt fell incomplete. The Houston Texans took the blessing and turned a half-win (and blown lead) into a win that snapped the longest losing streak in the NFL.
Look, Reich was on brand. It was a nice attitude call, but decisions aren’t praised without the execution. The offense didn’t get it done, the defense didn’t get it done, and the special teams didn’t get it done. That’s what Reich has to deal with – not the fact that he decided against punting with less than a minute left in overtime.
Teams of the Week:
NE, BAL, JAX, KC
DAL, CHI, NO, LA
Winning units:
LA pass offense (WR Cooper Kupp)
CIN offensive line (QB Andy Dalton)
CHI pass offense (WR Taylor Gabriel)
DAL run offense (RB Ezekiel Elliott)
GB pass defense (SS Ha Ha Clinton-Dix)
HOU special teams (K Ka’imi Fairbairn)
JAX pass offense (WR Donte Moncrief)
NE pass offense (RB James White)
TEN offensive line (QB Marcus Mariota)
SEA run defense (CB Tre Flowers)
OAK pass offense (TE Jared Cook)
LAC run offense (RB Melvin Gordon)
NO run offense (RB Alvin Kamara)
BAL pass offense (WR John Brown)
KC pass offense (TE Travis Kelce)
Looking ahead to Week 5
Open Dates – Chicago, Tampa Bay:
As maddening as Chicago’s Week 1 loss in Green Bay was, I have enjoyed the “Khalil Mack is better than Oakland’s entire defense” narrative, and it is not just Mack doing work on fools. Chicago has been impossible to run against, and credit goes to DE Akiem Hicks as well as ILBs Danny Trevathan and 1st round rookie Roquan Smith. I’m buying. As for Tampa Bay? The pass defense has one INT against 13 TD passes allowed. This is a bad team, and I’m already done with them.
Colts at New England: “The rivalry is back on…” okay, buddy! You’ve never seen Andrew Luck’s Colts defeat the Patriots, and New England reminded everyone who enjoys having their trains come on time that they will never die. Indianapolis’ run game is trash, like it always is, so expect this game to come down to whether the Patriots can defend a Colts offense that will have WR Ryan Grant as the top option.
Jaguars at Kansas City: I don’t like quarterbacks too much, but Kansas City QB Patrick Mahomes is a breath of fresh air. That fourth quarter performance in Denver on Monday Night Football could go behind a paywall and I’d take my card out for it. That Chiefs team has wins in four time zones to begin the season, and October just got here. That said, I fully expect Jacksonville’s top-ranked defense to shut this thing down. Defense first until proven otherwise, you know what it is.
Rams at Seattle: I’m bypassing the NFC championship rematch in Philadelphia because this game interests me more. Really, Seattle FS Earl Thomas’ situation interests me more. I posted my thoughts on Thomas’ season-ending injury here – I just hope he plays in the NFL again. Thomas seriously contemplated retiring when he broke his leg in 2016. The Rams obliterated the Seahawks last December in a game that decided the NFC West, but I still want to see what kind of gameplan Seattle has for that offensive weaponry from Los Angeles.
Cowboys at Houston: Don’t let these teams winning in Week 4 fool you – they’re both bad. The Cowboys, especially, are bland and overexposed. The top three WRs are all undrafted (Cole Beasley, Allen Hurns, Deonte Thompson), and it shows. Dez Bryant’s tweets are the most entertaining thing about the Cowboys now, and NBC should dedicate its ticker to Bryant’s timeline. (Dez did NOT catch it by the way.) Houston has allowed 11 TD passes to 1 INT. SS Tyrann Mathieu had the lone pick, and he got Mossed by a rookie RB for a TD in Week 4. It will be infuriating to see how the Texans lose this game, and you know they will.
R******s at New Orleans: Washington is coming off a bye, so we’ll need to be reminded that they’re still in the league by time this game starts. What you should be reminded of is how Washington had a 31-16 lead in New Orleans with 5:58 left in regulation and watched as the Saints made a game-winning field goal in overtime. New Orleans RB Mark Ingram is back from suspension to complement RB Alvin Kamara, so we’re going to find out just how real Washington’s defensive improvement is on Monday Night Football.