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32 things we learned in NFL Week 4: Giants, Jaxson Dart win but so much collateral damage
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- 32 things we learned in NFL Week 4: Giants, Jaxson Dart win but so much collateral damage
Editor's note: Follow Dolphins vs. Jets live updates and Broncos vs. Bengals live updates on Monday Night Football's double-header.
The 32 things we learned from Week 4 of the 2025 NFL season :
0.Still the number of NFL wins registered by New Orleans Saints QB Spencer Rattler , who made his 10th pro start Sunday, which was also his 25th birthday. But Rattler and his team hung tough and hardly looked overmatched in a 31-19 loss to the Buffalo Bills in Western New York. If any game this season had the makings of a significant blowout, it was this one.
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1.The number of NFL wins registered by New York Giants rookie QB Jaxson Dart , who made his first pro start Sunday and led his previously winless team to a victory over the previously undefeated Los Angeles Chargers . Dart threw for a touchdown, ran for a touchdown and passed his first in-game concussion protocol – though that forced newly relegated backup Russell Wilson onto the field for a few snaps.
2.But the collateral damage around the Giants-Bolts game was extensive – namely the torn ACL, per multiple reports, suffered by budding Giants superstar WR Malik Nabers . His on-field partnership with Dart lasted all of a half before apparently being put on pause until 2026.
2a.The AFC West-leading Chargers also sustained a serious setback, OT Joe Alt lost in the first quarter to an ankle injury that had him in a walking boot after halftime. Alt has been filling in at left tackle, which he capably manned at Notre Dame, after Pro Bowler Rashawn Slater ruptured his patellar tendon in training camp, knocking him out of the lineup until 2026.
3.The ramifications of their upset went even further for the Chargers, who saw their divisional lead shrink to one game over ... the Kansas City Chiefs , who are suddenly sitting at a very healthy 2-2 (though the Bolts did beat them in Week 1).
EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY - SEPTEMBER 28: Malik Nabers #1 of the New York Giants is injured on the play against Cam Hart #20 of the Los Angeles Chargers during the second quarter in the game at MetLife Stadium on September 28, 2025 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
4.But the Chiefs smoked the Baltimore Ravens 37-20 on Sunday afternoon, QB Patrick Mahomes throwing for four TDs for the first time in nearly two years. Helps when explosive second-year WR Xavier Worthy − he led K.C. with both 38 rushing yards and 83 receiving yards in his first full game of the 2025 season − is healthy.
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5.Conversely, it's the Ravens who very much seem to be in serious jeopardy after falling to 1-3. Picked by many − raises hand − to win Super Bowl 60, they're already spiraling with QB Lamar Jackson (hamstring) and their defense waylaid by concerning injuries.
6.The Philadelphia Eagles – perhaps somewhat quietly, given they're the defending champions? – remain the team to beat after knocking off the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-25 in the weekend's only matchup of 3-0 squads.
7.The Eagles and Bills head into Week 5 as the league's only remaining unbeatens.
7a.Philadelphia has now started 4-0 in three of the past four seasons – 2024, when they wound up winning Super Bowl 59 , the lone exception.
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7b.The Saints and Tennessee Titans are currently the only 0-4 teams, though either the New York Jets or Miami Dolphins will presumably join them Monday night.
8.Yet the Eagles remain consistently inconsistent on both sides of the ball, their passing game (112 yards, none in the second half) and passing defense (272 net yards) both returning to the witness protection program Sunday in Tampa .
8a.More troubling star WR A.J. Brown appears to be back in his feelings after a seeming get-right game a week ago. But Brown collected just two of his team-high nine targets in Tampa for 7 yards.
9.Even All-Pro Saquon Barkley , coming off what was probably the greatest season a running back ever had , has 237 rushing yards – total – in four games.
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9a.Barkley had 255 yards last season … in one game.
10.But what remains reliably excellent are Philly's special teams – that group opening Sunday's scoring by returning a blocked punt 35 yards for a touchdown.
11.The Eagles became the first team in league history, per OptaSTATS, to score consecutive touchdowns via punt or field-goal blocks. They cinched Week 3's win over the Los Angeles Rams by swatting two fourth-quarter field-goal tries, the second returned to pay dirt by 336-pound DT Jordan Davis to end the game .
12.Through four weeks, Atlanta Falcons RB Bijan Robinson , Buffalo Bills RB James Cook and San Francisco 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey have had at least 100 yards from scrimmage in every game.
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12a.Robinson had a career-best 181 yards Sunday, (106 receiving, 75 rushing) and scored once as Atlanta got back into the win column after being blanked in Week 3.
12b.By scoring a TD and amassing 135 yards from scrimmage, Cook became the fourth player since 1990 to record at least 100+ yards from scrimmage and at least a touchdown in each of his team's first four games.
13. Las Vegas Raiders rookie RB Ashton Jeanty has taken some grief in this space to date, failing to rush for more than 63 yards in a game prior to Sunday. But against the Chicago Bears , he broke off a 64-yard TD run as part of a breakout performance that included 155 yards from scrimmage and three TDs. Props and congrats, sir.
13a. Jacksonville Jaguars rookie CB/WR Travis Hunter probably hasn't been granted enough grace and patience, either. And, frankly, he still hasn't had a breakout performance on par with Jeanty's. But the reigning Heisman Trophy winner made some nice catches among his three grabs for a career-best 42 yards in Sunday's defeat of the 49ers on the road. It's coming.
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14.The number of consecutive regular-season games the Bills have won at Highmark Stadium after surviving the Saints on Sunday. Buffalo has scored at least 24 points in all of them.
15.The NFL's first regular-season game in Ireland turned out to be a thriller , the Pittsburgh Steelers – owned by the Irish-rooted Rooney family – staving off a fourth-quarter comeback by the Minnesota Vikings at Dublin's historic Croke Park.
16.The number of international games NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wants to eventually see on the schedule annually.
17.Goodell said Saturday that he hopes to expand the league's footprint to Asia soon but didn't specify a locale the league was targeting on the world's largest continent.
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18.The NFL will be playing its first regular-season games in Australia and Rio de Janeiro in 2026.
19.The league is playing a record seven international games this season – Sunday's game in Dublin kicking off a stretch of four consecutive weeks the league will be playing in Europe, each of the next three games based in London – so don't forget to set those fantasy lineups on Saturday night.
20.The league will make its debut in Berlin and Madrid in November.
21.Already putting in your fantasy waiver wire claim for Houston Texans RB Woody Marks ? The rookie from USC entered Sunday with 90 yards from scrimmage in three games and nary a score. Against the Tennessee Titans, he posted 119 total yards and two TDs. As the two-time defending AFC South champions finally notched their first win of 2025.
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22.As for the still winless – and somehow worse than their record indicates – Titans? Rookie QB Cam Ward and WR Calvin Ridley might be among players you're sending to the waiver wire.
23.It's also worth wondering if second-year Tennessee coach Brian Callahan might be the first among his ranks to hit the waiver wire this season. The Titans have looked incrementally worse by the week, and Ward didn't hold back his embarrassment following Sunday's defeat.
24.Back to the Bucs, who'd beaten the Eagles in six of their previous seven meetings prior to Sunday but still deserve a heavy dollop of credit. Despite trailing 24-3 before halftime and 31-13 late in the third quarter, they made a game of it. How?
25. Tampa Bay QB Baker Mayfield , injured biceps and all, became the first player to throw two TD passes covering at least 70 yards in the same game since … former Buc Ryan Fitzpatrick did it seven years ago … against the Eagles.
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26.Also, Bucs K Chase McLaughlin connected on a 65-yard field goal prior to halftime, the longest in NFL history that occurred outdoors. McLaughlin also drilled a 58-yarder Sunday.
27.Also on the plus side for the Bucs, who remain atop the NFC South, All-Pro LT Tristan Wirfs and WR Chris Godwin both made their 2025 debuts Sunday after lengthy injury rehabs.
28.Bills QB Josh Allen, the league's reigning MVP, continues to carve out a signature place in NFL history. He accounted for three touchdowns Sunday (2 through the air, 1 on the ground) and matched former MVP Cam Newton for the most games ever (45) with at least one passing and rushing TD.
29.Through four weeks, who didn't see the AFC South having a pair of 3-1 teams − neither based in Houston − who would also rank among the conference's (very premature) top five seeds. Naturally, we're referring to the Indianapolis Colts and Jacksonville Jaguars.
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30.The Colts might be 4-0 if not for WR Adonai's Mitchell mistakes Sunday. He prematurely celebrated what would have been a 76-yard TD catch and lost the ball through the end zone before breaking the goal. Touchback. If maybe too young to have learned from DeSean Jackson, Mitchell should have internalized the lesson with teammate Jonathan Taylor made a similar mistake last season.
30a.A second-round pick a year ago, Mitchell is still awaiting his first NFL TD.
30b.For good measure, Mitchell's holding penalty with little more than two minutes to play and the game tied nullified what would have been Taylor's go-ahead 53-yard TD run. The Colts were forced to punt, and the Rams scored the game-winning TD on their next snap.
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30c.But let's not pin the loss entirely on Mitchell. Daniel "Indiana" Jones did have something of a reversion with two INTs against LA.
31.And how much longer before the Cleveland Browns give one of their rookie quarterbacks – Dillon Gabriel and/or Shedeur Sanders – a shot? Veteran starter Joe Flacco committed three turnovers in Sunday's blowout loss to the Detroit Lions , Gabriel inserted for mop-up duty for the second time in three games.
32.Last (but certainly not "last"), Vikings CB Isaiah Rodgers – he's wearing the No. 2 jersey in the clip below – was clocked at 23.32 mph in Sunday's game, the fastest time posted by any player since Next Gen Stats began accumulating such data in 2017 ... even if he couldn't quite track down Steelers WR DK Metcalf from across the field on his 80-yard catch-and-run TD.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NFL Week 4 takeaways: Chiefs helped by Jaxson Dart, damaged Giants
