Just In: We were right to mourn the Eagles, Patrick Mahomes plays on hard mode and 12 things we learned in Week 4… See More

What did we learn in Week 4 of the 2024 NFL season? That Sam Darnold’s most recent rise may be his longest lasting one yet. That the problems that plagued the Philadelphia Eagles aren’t yet fixed. That the Cleveland Browns sold their soul for a pile of rusty bikes.

Week 4 lacked the drama and madness of upset-laden Weeks 2 and 3, but still delivered action in spades. Jordan Love was great and terrible mashed up into one giant snowball, careening downhill toward the rest of the NFC North. C.J. Stroud bounced back from a rough start against the Minnesota Vikings to keep the Jacksonville Jaguars buried in their hole. And the Jets gave their fans just enough reason to believe nothing has changed, even with a healthy Aaron Rodgers behind center.

Well, let’s take a deeper look at the most important developments from Week 4.

It’s been less than two years since Minnesota ran through a 13-win regular season. But those Vikings weren’t built for greatness. They had a negative point differential despite winning nine more games than they lost. They suffered a home playoff defeat to Daniel Jones.

There’s still a long way to go, but this year’s Minnesota team has been different. Through four games, they’ve recorded a plus-57 point differential. They handled the San Francisco 49ers and Houston Texans at home. On Sunday, they went to the hostile confines of Green Bay (albeit on an unseasonably warm day) and sprinted out to a 28-0 lead en route to a 31-29 win

Per former FTW writer Ben Fawkes, Minnesota has trailed for exactly three minutes and 26 seconds in the first month of the season. What’s been the difference?

Sam Darnold continues to play like an MVP candidate, tossing his ninth, 10th and 11th touchdown passes of the season to extend his NFL lead. Justin Jefferson, healthy again, remains a capital-s Stud. Aaron Jones, in his age 30 season, is on pace for more than 1,300 rushing yards.

But the biggest change has been defensive coordinator Brian Flores’ ability to transition from blitz-heavy mortar-shelling defense to a unit that terrifies you with the threat of those lobbed bombs before dropping into coverage to mess you up in an entirely different way.

In 2023, Flores’ defense blitzed a league high 51.5 percent of the time — only one other team went higher than 40.1 percent. But in 2024 that number was down to 39.3 percent through three weeks. That’s enough to rank second in the NFL, but it’s still a significant number.

Why is Flores blitzing less? In part because he trusts his reloaded edge rushing corps to bring pressure without extra men. Minnesota signed Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel this offseason before drafting Dallas Turner. Those three have eight sacks and 11 quarterback hits in four games together. Despite blitzing less, the Vikings’ pressure rate has gone up from 21.9 percent to 33.8 — second-best in the NFL.

But Flores has also developed, to borrow a phrase from the youths, certain vibes. When Minnesota shows blitz, it adds an extra layer of chaos to pre-snap development. So when the guys the Vikings have inched up to the line of scrimmage drop into cover, it breeds confusion.

Here, Kamu Grugier-Hill drops back from the line and into the middle of the field to create a first half interception (and, sadly, knock Christian Watson out of the game with a leg injury in the process).

Minnesota’s defense is more than just relentless blitzes. The Vikings are creating pressure with and without extra defenders, creating few easy gains or predictable calls. There’s the capacity to survive a Darnold backslide, which hasn’t shown signs of happening yet but has been a reckoning in years past. This is a team built to survive average quarterbacking thanks to great skill players — and T.J. Hockenson isn’t even back yet! — and a smothering defense.

So while 2022’s 13-win season may be the recent standard for Vikings success, Minnesota’s start suggests the capacity to blow away that year’s disappointment. A regression is still likely, but there’s nothing wrong with dropping from great to “pretty good.” Especially when Sam Darnold is your quarterback.

The Eagles were 2-1 coming into Week 4. They were a play away from being 3-0 thanks to a Week 2 come-from-ahead loss to the Atlanta Falcons. On paper, they looked like a Super Bowl contender.

Then, they returned to the nadir of their 2023 collapse and decided they were not yet done spelunking.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, winners of a 32-9 Wild Card game at Raymond James Stadium against these Eagles last winter, got out to a 24-0 advantage midway through the second quarter. After just 17 minutes of play, Tampa’s win probability was already greater than 90 percent. Hurts cut that lead down to 10 points with a pair of touchdowns, but the Eagle offense failed to score in the final 27 minutes of regulation, averaging 3.2 yards per play while futilely trying to mount a comeback.

The one upside of last year’s playoff loss was it was the only game in Philly’s last nine outings in which Hurts failed to turn the ball over. Unfortunately for the young quarterback, he’s a perfect four-for-four when it comes to weekly giveaways in 2024.

There are caveats here. Injuries whittled his top three wideouts to Parris Campbell, Jahan Dotson and John Ross, who recorded his first NFL stats since 2021 on Sunday. Saquon Barkley ran for 84 yards on 10 carries, but 59 of those came on a single handoff as Philly seemed intent on running at Vita Vea in the middle of the field despite the fact he’s a mountain cosplaying as a football player. Nothing here *quite* worked as planned, at least the way you’d expect when looking at the Eagles’ roster this preseason.

That includes the defense general manager Howie Roseman made it a priority to overhaul during the offseason. Last year’s late spiral was enabled by a leaky secondary that suffered from shoddy playmaking and an aging core. So Roseman signed C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Devin White and Zack Baun to reinforce the middle of the field. He drafted Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean with his first two picks.

In Week 4, that group held Baker Mayfield, fresh off his worst outing as a Buccaneer, to 347 passing yards and a pair of touchdowns.

It gets worse. The run game that has been a major weak point of the Tampa Bay offense saw Bucky Irving and Rachaad White combine for 98 yards on only 20 carries (that unit averaged under four yards per carry coming into Week 4, 24th-best in the NFL). In all, the Bucs nearly doubled up Philadelphia in terms of total offense. Hurts threw nine passes that traveled more than 10 yards downfield. He completed two.