10 NFL Week 4 awards and superlatives that we'll be arguing about all week

Week 4 is almost over. On Sunday, we saw the Philadelphia Eagles hang on to a lead to stay undefeated, the Baltimore Ravens collapse, and the Dallas Cowboys play for a tie. 

There were a whole lot of dudes who played like maniacs, and there were just as many who turtled up and refused to come out. They all deserve their awards.

Fraudulent teams, bouncing back, and weirdly mad coaches

If you were to tell me that the Indianapolis Colts were going to fart away a game and a chance to start their season 4-0, I would assume Daniel Jones crashed back down to Earth and made some super boneheaded decisions. I would be kind of right, but it turns out that he wasn’t the biggest culprit in that game. 

Ding Dong of the Week: Adonai Mitchell

The Ding Dong of the Week goes to the player who makes you audibly say, ‘You freaking ding dong.’ It gets across the point that you want it to, and you can say it in public without people being mad at you. It’s kind of perfect if you’re into your public image. 

Someone has to be the Ding Dong of the Week. Some weeks it’s worse than others. Some weeks, the biggest Ding Dong play is a muffed punt, and then there’s this week’s debacle… and woof. It’s a doozy.

There’s one thing that everyone in the world agrees on: Just get in the endzone. The Colts’ wide receiver, Adonai Mitchell, made everyone mad. On their first drive of the third quarter, Daniel Jones hit Mitchell on a beautiful deep throw. Mitchell took it 75 yards to the house… except for the part where he tried to reach the ball over the goal line, which is an absolute no-no.

He bobbled it, fumbled it through the endzone, and instead of a touchdown, it was a touchback. Instead of the Colts getting a 17-13 lead early in the second half, the score stayed 10-13 (where it would stay for the whole third quarter). 

There’s nothing else you can say about AD Mitchell, other than ‘You ding-dong.’

‘Best first game ever’ of the Week: Jaxson Dart

The Russell Wilson era of the New York Giants was brief and ugly, but now it’s the beginning of the Jaxson Dart era, and so far… You can’t complain. 

He was 13-of-20 for 111 yards and a touchdown through the air, which is nice. He was also sacked five times, which is kind of expected when glorified tackling dummies make up the majority of their offensive line.

His juice came on the ground. He had 10 carries for 54 yards, five first downs, and a touchdown. That’s pretty good, especially against the Chargers' defense, which has been solid this season. 

Oh, but the Giants lost Malik Nabers to an ACL... So… that’s tough. 

Jakobi Meyers Merchant: Geno Smith

The Raiders' passing game goes through tight end Brock Bowers and wide receiver Jakobi Meyers. Geno Smith has thrown a league-leading seven interceptions this season, and he’s targeted Jakobi Meyers on the last four of them. 

It’s almost like teams might’ve figured out what their game plan is on offense… More specifically, the Bears’ safety Kevin Byard, who intercepted Smith twice on Sunday.

If you know that a quarterback with an interception problem is targeting a wide receiver 26 percent of the time, it turns out all you need to do is wait for him to throw a bad ball or bait him into throwing at a guy (who he was already going to throw at). 

Sunday was Smith's second game this season with three interceptions. If you were wondering, the Raiders’ QB2 is Super Bowl Champion Kenny Pickett. They’re in a hell of a pickle right now. 

Thanks for nothing: Ashton Jeanty

The big thing in the Bears/Raiders game was that the Raiders’ rookie running back, Ashton Jeanty, had his coming-out party. 

He had 21 carries for 138 yards and a touchdown, and two catches for 17 yards and two touchdowns. He looked exactly like the running back that everyone fell in love with during his 2024 season at Boise State. 

The problem is that coming-out games are a whole lot more fun if you win… the Raiders did not win. Despite Jeanty playing like a psychopath, the Bears blocked a last-second field goal, and the Raiders lost 25-24. 

So, thanks, Ashton Jeanty. What you did was super sick, but ultimately it means absolutely nothing. 

Rookie of the Week: Jihaad Campbell

If the Raiders won that game, Jeanty would’ve been the rookie of the week. The Eagles, on the other hand, did win their game against the Buccaneers, and they did it on the back of rookie linebacker Jihaad Campbell. 

Sure, he did get burned by running back Bucky Irving on a 72-yard touchdown catch and run, but he also was part of forcing a fumble, which immediately put the Eagles in the red zone, and then had a game-saving interception in the end zone. 

He showed that he can get completely embarrassed, but not get shook. That’s not something that every rookie can do. 

Well, that’s definitely not good: A.J. Brown

In Weeks 1 and 2, A.J. Brown had six catches for 35 yards. In Week 3, he had six catches for 109 yards and a touchdown. In Week 4, he had two catches for seven yards. If he’s doing good, the offense is doing good, and everyone is happy. When he doesn’t have a good day, it becomes a story. 

Sometimes that story is unwarranted and unsolicited, sometimes it is. After the game on Sunday, he tweeted something:

No one knows what that means or who it’s directed to, and it’s dumb to assume anything. HOWEVER, the fact that he did tweet it is definitely not good. 

That’s not to say it’s a bad thing, though. AJB has tweeted some cryptic stuff in the past:

It’d be much cooler if he tweeted very straightforward things like Jahan Dotson (he tweeted on Saturday while Penn State's offense was laying a stinker against Oregon).

King of the Almost Comeback: Dak Prescott

Broadcasts and random jamokes on Twitter are very eager to tell you about how many comebacks quarterbacks have; it’s a real stat that’s available to everyone. 

I don’t know if ‘Almost Comebacks’ is a stat, but if it is, Dak Prescott has to have the All-Time NFL record for them. His career record is 77-48-1. If I had to ballpark how many of his 49 non-wins were games where they mounted a second-half comeback, but fell short… 30?

It feels like those games where Cowboys fans get their hopes up, only to have them ripped away in the final seconds of a game, happen all the time.

On Sunday night, the Cowboys were getting wiped in the first quarter, and it felt like it was just a matter of time until the Packers pulled away. Then there were a couple of fluke plays: a returned extra point and a fumble that gave Dallas the ball on Green Bay’s 27-yard line. All of a sudden, the Cowboys go into the half with a 16-13 lead. 

The whole second half went back and forth; there were seven lead changes before it went to overtime… and in those 10 extra minutes, it was abundantly clear that both teams were totally cool with that game ending in a 40-40 tie. 

I would argue that counts as another almost-comeback for Dak Prescott. Sure, it wasn’t like he was down big in the second half, but the Cowboys vibes after the first quarter were just about as low as you can get… and then that gets capped off with their offense stalling out on the Packers' four-yard line in overtime. 

Chill out, dude: Liam Coen

Beefs between coaches are cool, but only if it’s because of stuff that happens on the field or if there’s a long-time rivalry. After the Jaguars and 49ers game on Sunday, Jacksonville’s head coach, Liam Coen, had a bit of a tiff with San Fran’s defensive coordinator. 

(Potty mouth warning)

“Keep my name out of your mouth. Keep my name out of your f-----g mouth.” -Coen“
I will f--- your world up.”-Saleh

That was weird. Why don’t you two just chill out for a second? 

Turns out, this whole thing came from Saleh saying that the Jags “got, legally, a really advanced signal-stealing type of system where they always find a way to put themselves in an advantageous situation.”

…That doesn’t necessarily seem like damning. That actually seems like a compliment. That's a, ‘those guys are always prepared on offense. I have no idea how they do it.’

Also, saying “Keep my name out of your mouth” is very close to Will Smith’s “Keep my wife’s name out of your mouth” thing. I’m not sure you want to be in that air. 

Uh-Oh: Ravens

Every year, there’s a team that gets a lot of preseason hype, and then they end up being completely disappointing for 18 weeks. It’s looking a lot like this year’s team is going to be the Ravens. 

Going into Sunday, we knew that either the Ravens or the Chiefs were going to start their season with a 1-3 record, but not every 1-3 record is created equal. You can lose tight games and be super competitive, or you can fill your diaper and go out like a coward. The Ravens are a lot closer to being the latter. 

They had a gutting loss to the Bills in Week 1, spanked the Browns in Week 2, got wrecked by the Lions in Week 3, and got demolished by the Chiefs in Week 4.

Their defense is very bad and injured, and then they lost Lamar Jackson to a hamstring thing in the third quarter. The vibes are very, very bad around the Ravens right now. Their next four games are against the Texans, the Rams, the Bears, and the Dolphins. They need to go 4-0 in those games if there is any chance of them wanting to be taken seriously, because right now, they are very much a not-serious team. 

2024 Saints of the Week: Green Bay Packers

In Weeks 1 and 2 of the 2024 season, the New Orleans Saints looked like the power house; they outscored their opponents 91-29. After that, they went on to lose seven straight games.

In Weeks 1 and 2 of the 2025 season, the Green Bay Packers looked like the power house; they outscored their opponents 54-31. After that, they went on to lose to the Browns and allow 40 points to the Cowboys in a tie.

Green Bay, and specifically its defense, has put itself on fraud watch. Their next four games are against the Bengals, the Cardinals, the Steelers, and the Panthers. Those are some bad offenses mixed in there. If they want to get back in society’s good graces, they’re going to need to be a chainsaw. 

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