NFL Week 4 Sunday: Derrick Henry’s brutal game hands Bills first loss

CNN
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Week 4 of the 2024 NFL season saw plenty of drama across 13 games.

From outstanding singles matches to late-stage tournaments, fans enjoyed the action from start to finish.

Here are the highlights from Sunday’s slate of games:

“King Henry” Bill suffers his first loss of the year

Since the Baltimore Ravens’ first game against the Buffalo Bills, they’ve led the showdown between the AFC giants — and it’s all thanks to Derrick Henry.

Henry sprinted through the heart of Buffalo’s defense on Baltimore’s first offensive play of the game before running wide 87 yards for a touchdown.

It was the longest touchdown run in Baltimore history but the third-longest of “King Henry’s” career. It was his seventh rushing touchdown of 70 yards or more — the most in NFL history alongside Adrian Peterson and Chris Johnson.

Monster rushing set the tone for the game, as Henry finished with 199 yards and two touchdowns on the ground off 24 carries as the Ravens decisively routed the Bills 35-10.

After joining Baltimore in the offseason from the Tennessee Titans and going through some minor growing pains the first two weeks, this is Henry’s second 150+ yard game in as many weeks as the Ravens have bounced back from an 0-2 start with two straight scores. Wins to get back on track.

The star RB was aided by a strong performance from Ravens QB Lamar Jackson who caught three touchdowns — two passes and one with his legs — as Baltimore pulled out an impressive win.

Afterward, Henry explained that after taking some time to gel, the Ravens offense is starting to build a head of steam.

“We have some momentum. There are still things we can improve on and we will focus on them and get better at them, but the season is long.”

“We got off to a great start last week, and then we didn’t finish the way we wanted to. Then in this game tonight, we got the momentum and we were able to close out the game. We’re still going, we’re still working and we’re still looking to get better.”

For the Bills, this was a disappointing outing after being the hottest team in the league the first three weeks.

There were still glimpses of positivity for the Bills through the play of quarterback Josh Allen — including a 52-yard pass to Khalil Shakir in the second half — but Buffalo struggled on both sides of the ball against a rampant Baltimore team.

Such was the margin of victory, that both Allen and Jackson were benched late in the game to avoid injuries.

Bills coach Sean McDermott praised his opposition after the defeat.

“I’ll give credit where credit is due. The Baltimore Ravens came out and beat us. They outplayed us. We’ve got to identify the problems and fix them,” McDermott told reporters. …We have to make it quick and go from there.”

After an outstanding performance last week, Jayden Daniels continued his stellar season with another impressive showing on Sunday, this time in a comprehensive 42-14 win over the Arizona Cardinals.

The No. 2 overall draft pick was incredibly accurate again in Arizona, completing nearly 87% of his passes, throwing for 233 yards, one touchdown and an interception. He also ran for 47 yards and a score.

This latest win means Daniels has a completion percentage of 82.1 through four weeks of the season, the highest mark of any player over a four-week period since 1950. It broke Peyton Manning’s previous record set in 2008, a season in which both – The Super Bowl champion won the MVP award for the first time.

The single-season rookie record is set at 67.8% by Dak Prescott in 2016, while the all-time record overall was set by Drew Brees in 2018 at 74.4%.

The 23-year-old also became the first player in NFL history to complete at least 85% of his passes in consecutive games. Per the NFL.

Daniels is the main reason the Leaders are now 3-1 on the season, with back-to-back impressive wins the past two weeks. First, they went to Cincinnati and shocked the Bengals in Week 3 before traveling to Arizona this week and dropping 42 points on the Cardinals.

It was a revenge game for Washington offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, who returned to Arizona for the first time since leaving as the Cardinals’ head coach in 2022; And the Commanders OC created the perfect game plan, balancing between running plays and asking Daniels to throw the ball.

Washington had 449 total offensive yards, with 233 coming through the air and 216 via the rushing attack, which led to four touchdowns on the day.

The defense also did its job against Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray, coming off four sacks and limiting his ability to run.

The Chiefs now sit atop the NFC East with a 3-1 record, and with Daniels at the helm, things are looking rosy in the nation’s capital.

Over the course of Sunday’s games, there were a lot of games that came down to the final few moments; Early matches saw five games decided by four points or less.

Two of the most dramatic finishes came in Atlanta and New Jersey.

In Atlanta, Youngho Ko’s 58-yard field goal with just two seconds left gave the Falcons a thrilling 26-24 victory over their archrival, the New Orleans Saints.

It wasn’t a classic, but Coe kicked four field goals — including the game-winning one — as the Falcons improved to 2-2.

“There are a lot of things that need to be fixed,” Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins ​​said. Via ESPN’s Mark Raimondi. “So, you come away and say, ‘I’m so happy we won,’ but I’ll take a voice note on the way home to the coaches with some ideas and how I need to be better and how we can be better.” “We have to build on it.”

In East Rutherford, Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets surrendered a disappointing 10-9 loss at home to the Denver Broncos.

Playing in very wet conditions, there wasn’t much attacking from either side. But the Broncos took a one-point lead midway through the fourth quarter thanks to a 47-yard field goal from Will Lutz.

Denver had a chance to extend its lead with 91 seconds left, but Lutz’s 50-yard field goal sailed left, opening the door for the Jets.

Rodgers was able to drive New York to Denver’s 32-yard line to set up Gang Green’s own 50-yard field goal as time ran down, but Greg Zuerlein’s effort went right and the Broncos held on for the victory.

“I can’t say I had an amazing game,” Rodgers told reporters after the loss. “I missed some shots. The weather was bad, but so were some of my throws. We had some chances, but a lot of mental errors, a lot of bad shots, and then we missed some easy things, some protection things that should have been easy, some course adjustment things that should have been easy. Our focus was not as sharp as it was in the first three weeks.

This is how the game played, as Broncos quarterback Bo Nix became the first quarterback in the Super Bowl era to average less than 2.5 yards per pass attempt in a game his team won, Per the NFL. The Knicks threw 25 times for 60 yards in the victory.

Elsewhere, C.J. Stroud led a touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter as the Houston Texans beat the winless Jacksonville Jaguars 24-20, while a strong second-half comeback from the Steelers failed as the Indianapolis Colts managed to inflict a 27-24 defeat. At Pittsburgh – his first loss of the season.

away@home (winners in bold)

New Orleans Saints 24-26 Atlanta Falcons

Cincinnati Bengals 34-24 Carolina Panthers

Los Angeles Rams 18-24 Chicago Bears

Minnesota Vikings 31-29 Green Bay Packers

Jacksonville Jaguars 20-24 Houston Texas

Pittsburgh Steelers 24-27 Indianapolis Colts

Denver Broncos 10-9 New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles 16-33 Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Washington leaders 42-14 Arizona Cardinals

New England Patriots 13-30 San Francisco 49ers

Kansas City Chiefs 17-10 Los Angeles Chargers

Cleveland Browns 16-20 las vegas raiders

Buffalo Bills 10-35 Baltimore Ravens