NFL winners and losers from Week 4: CeeDee Lamb torches the Texans, Jets get manhandled in Chicago

A 17-game season means Week 4 isn't quite the quarter pole of the NFL season anymore, but it is still a significant marker in the campaign. This week, CeeDee Lamb had about a month's worth of production in one game, while the Jets couldn't even run half a game's worth of plays in Chicago.

Let's look back at the big winners and losers of Week 4, starting in Houston as Lamb made the Texans look foolish all day long.

NFL Week 4 Winners

CeeDee Lamb

There may not have been a more dominant performer on Sunday than Lamb, who shredded a strong Texans' defense throughout the afternoon. Lamb was a matchup winner in fantasy spaces by catching 17 passes for 189 yards and a score to help Dallas win the Battle of Texas 34-30 over Houston.

It is mind-boggling why the Texans didn't have Derek Stingley, one of the best corners in the league, shadow Lamb the entire game after he started getting into a rhythm. Lamb was unstoppable on the Cowboys' final drive, catching four passes for 44 yards and the go-ahead touchdown to help Dallas get back to .500 and stay a game back of the Giants in the NFC East.

Los Angeles Rams

There was real danger of it getting late early for the Rams, who were 1-2 entering Sunday's game in Philadelphia, who were 6-1 against Sean McVay in his career. The Eagles had a chance to put the Rams away, facing third-and-goal at the Los Angeles 2-yard line up 10 points with 8:17 to go, but they failed to get a killer touchdown on fourth down and gave Los Angeles new life.

The Rams responded with back-to-back touchdown drives, sandwiching a three-and-out for the Eagles, to avoid what could have been a do-or-die spot against Buffalo in Week 5 in yet another primetime game. Now there is a lot of juice for Los Angeles, which saw Puka Nacua make a big impact in his return from a groin injury, as they look to get their season back on track.

Drake Maye

There were a lot of think pieces about the regression of Drake Maye following his disastrous Week 3 showing in Jacksonville. Something about seeing the Buffalo Bills brings out the best in the Patriots' young quarterback and he balled out against their bitter rivals, completing 22-of-37 passes for 269 yards and three touchdowns against just one interception.

A big key for Maye was making smarter decisions with the football, giving his team a chance to stay in a game where Josh Allen had a more muted impact. Maye should be able to use this game as a springboard to get his season back on track with the potential of getting A.J. Brown back in the next few weeks as well.

San Francisco 49ers

Another big contributor went down with injuries, but it hasn't found a way to slow down the 49ers yet. Despite watching fullback Kyle Juszczyk leave with an injury, San Francisco improved to 4-0 with a dominant defensive showing in a 10-point victory over the Denver Broncos.

The 49ers were extremely impressive with boundary coverage, leaving Bo Nix little options besides checking down to RJ Harvey, who caught 10 of Nix's 25 passes. Brock Purdy also burnished his early MVP case with two touchdown passes to help San Francisco maintain the title of best team over the first month of the season.

Las Vegas Raiders

It may seem counterintuitive to see the Raiders listed here even though they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs. Las Vegas earned this spot, however, by going toe-to-toe with Kansas City all game long and showing that their 3-0 start was no fluke.

Allegiant Stadium was rocking for this critical AFC West showdown as the Raiders' fans in attendance were plenty loud to try and drown out the large contingent of Chiefs' supporters. Even though they couldn't finish off a late comeback, the Raiders took several body blows from the Chiefs and responded, showing that they will be a force to be reckoned with in the AFC playoff picture all season long.

NFL Week 4 Losers

0-3 Teams

Going 0-3 is nearly a death sentence in the NFL, although the advent of the 17th game has given some of those teams a chance to come back from the dead as we saw with the Houston Texans last year. Five teams entered Week 4 at 0-3 and all five left without securing their first win, essentially declaring their seasons over before Columbus Day.

The only team to ever reach the playoffs after starting 0-4 was the 1992 San Diego Chargers, who went 11-1 down the stretch to win the AFC West. It's hard to envision any of the current Chargers, Texans, Titans, Dolphins or Buccaneers putting that type of run together so it is officially draft season for those fan bases.

New York Jets

They may have a win on their ledger but no team was as pitiful on Sunday as the Jets were. Despite starting backup quarterback Tyson Bagent, the Bears bullied the Jets on offense, holding the football for 42:45, gaining 34 first downs and running 57 more plays than the Jets did for the game.

Chicago got more first downs (34) than New York had offensive plays (32), which is not the kind of statistic that looks good in the history books. The Jets did end their interception streak when Minkah Fitzpatrick picked off Bagent in the second quarter, but that is the only positive from a game that did a lot of bad for the narrative that Aaron Glenn is following the Lions' developmental path in New York.

Fantasy Football

Players like Lamb and Burrow had massive days to help their fantasy managers earn win, but the fantasy game took it on the chin with a number of big names going down with injuries. Ja'Marr Chase (concussion), Saquon Barkley (hamstring), Lamar Jackson (ankle), Rashee Rice (hamstring) and Tee Higgins (groin) were among the many who suffered injuries in their games that could carry forward into the season.

The situations with Jackson and Barkley are particularly troublesome, especially with word emerging that Jackson left the stadium in a protective boot. The rash of injuries comes as the first two byes of the season come in Week 5, making the waiver wire an all out war zone for teams trying to replace injured stars.

Washington Commanders

Going out to London and losing to the Colts in a game they had to win was bad enough. The Commanders picked up another quarterback injury at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as Marcus Mariota suffered a knee injury and did not return, leaving the Washington offense in the hands of overwhelmed third-stringer Athan Kaliakmanis for the rest of the day.

Mariota's steadying presence would have given Washington a chance to win this game and offer them more runway to be cautious with Jayden Daniels, who is trying to come back from a dislocated elbow. Now the Commanders are 1-3 with a do-or-die game against the Giants on Sunday, meaning Washington may be forced to throw caution to the wind with Daniels if they hope to stay afloat in the NFC East.

Officiating

We covered the officials in this space last week for a string of questionable calls, which can at least be regarded as mistakes in applying rules. What we saw on Sunday looked like a group of officials on ego trips, casting the whole officiating system in a bad light.

Patriots' coach Mike Vrabel received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for what the refs deemed unacceptable language for complaining about a call.

We also saw an incident in the Dolphins-Vikings game where Vikings' linebacker Eric Wilson was blocked into referee Adrian Hill. Recognizing he unintentionally put the ref in harm's way, Wilson extended a hand to help Hill up but was greeted with vitriol.

The worst incident may have come at MetLife Stadium when CBS cameras caught an official cursing out Cardinals' tight end Trey McBride late in the game. The NFLPA is not happy about that situation, which ESPN's Adam Schefter is reporting will be reviewed by the league, and it goes to show that the quality of officiating needs to improve significantly as incidents like this are embarrassing for the league.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow