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The good, bad, and ugly from Week 4 in the NFL season

The brass in Carolina must have been pretty full of itself when it rescinded the franchise tag on Josh Norman during the spring. To them, the team's system resulted in his success as a Defensive Player of the Year candidate.

Following Sunday's humiliating defensive performance against the Atlanta Falcons, it's pretty clear that Norman is getting the last laugh from atop his perch in the nation's capital.

Carolina's defense yielded 571 yards, 25 first downs and 48 points. In fact, Atlanta became the first team in modern NFL history with a 500-yard passer (Matt Ryan) and a 300-yard receiver (Julio Jones).

But the team surely isn't missing what Norman brought to the table last season. This is a prime representation of that average-looking man dumping his significant other thinking he can upgrade his situation, only to find himself sleeping alone.

And so begins the bad from NFL’s Week 4 action.

* Officiating in the San Francisco 49ers' loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday was about as bad as it gets. With San Francisco winning 14-0 in the second quarter, defensive back Jaquiski Tartt was called for an unnecessary roughness penalty on Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott.

With fans of both teams boisterous at Levi's on Sunday, players didn't hear the whistle blown on the field. It led to a questionable late hit by the second-year safety on the rookie quarterback.

“I think it changed the game,” 49ers coach Chip Kelly said after the game, via CSN Bay Area. “We got to do a better job of avoiding that. I really didn’t see. He said he blew the whistle to stop the play. I don’t think anybody heard a whistle. I know no one on our sideline heard the whistle." 

The play would have resulted in a Cowboys punt. Instead, the drive continued with Dallas punching it into the end zone to pull to within one score.

With Tyron Smith injured, second-year player Chaz Green was tasked with protecting Prescott's blindside. While he did a tremendous job under less-than-stellar situations, Green was given a head start multiple times throughout the game. Literally.

If you don't want take SB Nation's word for it, that's fine.

There were multiple instances of the officials favoring the road team here. In no way should anyone blame this for San Francisco blowing a 14-0 lead. That's on Blaine Gabbert. That's on the team's defense.

But a squad looking to move to .500 shouldn't be doing battle with a superior opponent and the officials at the same time. That's most definitely a bad look for the NFL.

* The Arizona Cardinals turned the ball over five times for the second consecutive game. They also lost starting quarterback Carson Palmer to a concussion. Now at 1-3 on the season, Bruce Arians and Co. are left licking their wounds heading in Thursday night's game against San Francisco — a game that will likely include Drew Stanton starting under center.

Sunday's loss to the Los Angeles Rams was especially difficult considering Arizona racked up 420 yards of total offense and 26 first downs. Four of the team's five turnovers came on the Rams' side of the field. That's not good for anyone involved.

* The Denver Broncos treated Jameis Winston as their own personal rag doll in a blowout win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. Winston was hit a total of 16 times on 40 drop backs, finding himself sacked five times in the process. It was really bad.

This led to Winston throwing two passes directly into the hands of Broncos corner Aqib Talib.

There was definitely a concern that Tampa Bay's protection wouldn't hold up against the best pass rush in the NFL. Whether it was Von Miller going up against Demar Dotson or second-year tackle Donovan Smith having to block Shane Ray, we knew the Bucs would be in trouble here.

And that's exactly what happened. By virtue of throwing two more interceptions on Sunday, Winston has eight through four games — a mark that ties Trent Dilfer and Vinny Testaverde for the second-most in franchise history.

"No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly." 

Not another quote in the history of man could define what we saw in New England on Sunday afternoon. Leave it to the great Oscar Wilde to provide us this transition to the ugly from Week 4 of the NFL season.

The success New England has had under Bill Belichick represents a beauty we've rarely seen in the history of the NFL. Unfortunately for the Pats, the exact opposite was true in a 16-0 loss to the division-rival Buffalo Bills on Sunday.

It's the first time the Patriots have been shut out since 2006 and the first time they've been blanked at home in a quarter century.

How ugly was it? New England converted on 1-of-12 third-down opportunities, compiled a grand total of 13 first downs and crossed into Buffalo's half of the field just three times.

Okay, we get it. Rookie third-round pick Jacoby Brissett was starting under center with Jimmy Garoppolo injured and Tom Brady suspended. Tight end Rob Gronkowski is clearly not at 100 percent. All of this is true.

It still doesn't take away the fact that New England was shut out by an inferior AFC East opponent at home — an opponent that has the loud-mouthed Rex Ryan running the show. It also came after a pregame scuffle between the two teams.

As Buffalo made a point, the Patriots laid down in front of their home crowd. When was the last time that happened?

* It might not be much longer before Ryan Fitzpatrick has to put that Ivy League education to the test outside of the football field. After a surprisingly good 2015 performance, the veteran journeyman has been an absolute disaster this season.

He threw another three interceptions against the Seattle Seahawks, bringing his two-game total to a whopping nine.

It's really become nothing less than a joke at this point for Fitzpatrick. After succeeding in targeting Brandon Marshall in the first half, the Jets' quarterback decided to go back to Richard Sherman's direction twice more through the afternoon.

You don't need to be a genius to realize how this turned out.

* Up 34-21 with under seven minutes remaining against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, it was once again time for the San Diego Chargers to crap all over themselves. That seems a bit harsh, but there's really no better way to explain what happened here.

A Melvin Gordon fumble gave New Orleans its shortest field of the game, resulting in a touchdown from Drew Brees to Michael Thomas to pull within six.

Then, on the very next Chargers' play, Travis Benjamin coughed the ball up after catching a pass from Philip Rivers. Seven plays and 31 yards later, New Orleans had itself a 35-34 win.

This represents the 12th one-score game San Diego has lost since the start of last season. It's also surely going to lead to questions about Mike McCoy's job status.

* It would have been nice if the Kansas City Chiefs actually decided to show up in front of a national audience against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night. In absolutely no way did that come to fruition.

This best signified what happened to Kansas City at Heinz Field on Sunday. Already down 36-0 to Pittsburgh late in the third quarter, Alex Smith led the Chiefs on a 17-play, 80-yard drive. With four opportunities to get the ball in from inside the seven, Kansas City failed. Two dropped passes in the end zone played a role in this.

When all was said and done Sunday night, Kansas City took a beating by the score of 43-14 one week after embarrassing the New York Jets. Talk about inconsistency.

Matt Ryan's current NFL ranks...
Pass yards: 1st
Touchdowns: 1st
Yards/attempts: 1st
QB rating: 1st — Mike Conti (@MikeConti929) October 2, 2016

It has definitely escalated quickly in Atlanta. Fresh off a dominating and historical performance in a win over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, the Falcons find themselves in the midst of a three-game winning streak.

More than that, they've been absolutely dominating on offense during this span. Atlanta put up 571 total yards, 25 first downs and 48 points against Carolina. This has the team ranked No. 1 in the NFL in scoring at 38 points per game heading into Week 5.

From an individual standpoint, Matt Ryan and Julio Jones were busy playing on Madden on rookie level Sunday afternoon.


Jones caught 12-of-15 targets for 300 yards and a score. The 300 yards represents a franchise record and the sixth-most yards in modern NFL history. Meanwhile, Ryan completed 28-of-37 passes for 503 yards with four scores.

While the rest will pale in comparison, here's a look at some more good from Week 4 of the NFL season.

* If you had Dak Prescott leading his Dallas Cowboys to a 3-1 record in Tony Romo's stead, please come and hang with me in Vegas this weekend.

The rookie fourth-round pick struggled out of the gate against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. Down 14-0 in the second quarter, it looked like his Cinderella season was going to take a bad turn.

That didn't happen.

Prescott led his Cowboys all the way back, completing 23-of-32 passes for 245 yards with two touchdowns in the process.

He now boasts the NFL record for the most pass attempts (131) without an interception to start his career. In fact, Prescott has not turned the ball over in four starts this season.

* Aiding Prescott in Sunday's 24-17 win over San Francisco was fellow rookie Ezekiel Elliott. The top-five pick put up 157 yards and a score on 24 touches. This brings Elliott's two-game total to 317 total yards on 56 touches. Yes, that's an average of 5.7 yards per touch.

Looking at the tape, there's an obvious reason for this success. Elliott simply isn't human.

At some point, you simply have to start feeling bad for those attempting to tackle Elliott.

* The Oakland Raiders are 3-1. The Oakland Raiders are 3-1.

That sure the heck does put it into perspective, doesn't it? The last time Oakland started a season with three wins in its first four games was all the way back in 2002. Coincidentally enough, that was also the last time Oakland earned a playoff appearance.

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