September 30, 2025
Week 4 of the NFL season is in the books, and there's only one undefeated team left in the NFC. We have no new obituaries this week, though the Carolina Panthers and New York Giants are hanging by a thread.
15) Giants (1-3): The good news: The Giants won a game in their rookie quarterback's first NFL start, and they even beat a good team! 🥳🎉
The bad news: They lost Malik Nabers for the season with a torn ACL.Â
If you were to poll Giants fans on whether they'd trade the win for Nabers' ACL to be untorn, most would probably make that deal, right?
Last week: 15
14) Panthers (1-3): The Panthers got smoked on the road by the Patriots, 42-13. That's nothing new.
During the Bryce Young era in Carolina (2023-2025), the Panthers have a road record of 2-18 with a point differential of -304. 13 of those 18 losses have been by double-digit points.
Last week: 13
13) Falcons (2-2): Michael Penix was 20 of 26 for 313 yards (12.0 YPA), 2 TDs, 1 INT. That was clearly his best game of the season. I have a feeling the Commanders are going to be a "get right" defense for a lot of quarterbacks this season.Â
Last week: 14
12) Cowboys (1-2-1): Credit the Cowboys for not getting embarrassed in front of a national audience on Sunday night against their old friend Micah Parsons. Of course, saying, "Credit the Cowboys for not getting embarrassed" is the current bar for achievement for this team. As you probably saw, they tied the Packers 40-40. Funny stat:
Cowboys improve to 0-6-1 all time against the Packers at AT&T Stadium
— Saad Yousuf (@SaadYousuf126) September 29, 2025
And a crazy stat:
You can only achieve that feat if your defense is very bad, and well, the Cowboys' defense is very bad.Â
| Dallas defense | Stat | NFL rank |
| Points PPG allowed | 33 | 31 |
| Yards per game allowed | 420.5 | 32 |
| Rushing yards per game allowed | 123.3 | 20 |
| Passing yards per game allowed | 297.3 | 32 |
| Yards per play allowed | 6.4 | 31 |
| Sacks | 5 | T-26 |
Last week: 12
11) Bears (2-2): Man, Ben Johnson got really mad at some pretty normal questions at halftime, lol:Â
The Bears are back at 2-2 after a miserable first two weeks of the season.
Week 5 is the first week the NFL will have some byes, by the way. The Bears are one of them, along with the Falcons, Packers and Steelers. Take a nap or something, Ben.
Last week: 11
10) Cardinals (2-2): The Cardinals do not beat good teams:Â
The Arizona Cardinals are now 2-10 in their last 12 against teams with a winning record.
— Johnny Venerable (@JohnnyVenerable) September 26, 2025
They have lost six straight while averaging just 19ppg on offense.
Last week: 10
9) Vikings (2-2): The Vikings' loss in Ireland to the Steelers was the full Carson Wentz experience. He'd make an athletic play with a good throw that would raise an eyebrow...
And then immediately remind everyone thereafter that he isn't it, staring down a covered receiver and taking a sack while a bunch of other guys are wide open.
Anyway, the Vikings don't have a quarterback.
Last week: 9
8) Commanders (2-2): The Commanders were without Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin against the Falcons, and, well, when you have a couple of star players out you need other parts of your team to step up. Like, you know, the defense. They did not.Â
They gave up 435 yards, 24 first downs, and 6.8 yards per play to a team that got shut out by the Panthers last week.
But most alarmingly about this Commanders team is that PFF had them down for 12 missed tackles against the Falcons. They couldn't tackle the Eagles in the playoffs last year, and despite efforts to fix that during the offseason, they still can't tackle.Â
PFF has Frankie Luvu down for 7 missed tackles so far on the season, vs. 23 tackles, or a missed tackle percentage of 23.3%. He can get after the passer as a blitzer, but he is absolutely not a good, complete starting off-ball linebacker, and remains one of the most overrated players in the NFL. He should be a situational pass rusher.
He's also still among the dirtiest players in the league. This is as blatant of a hip drop tackle as you'll see:
And then, as expected, a bunch of the Commanders' older players are very clearly in decline. Marshon Lattimore is getting roasted regularly, and Bobby Wagner has lost a step.
This team caught a break by getting the Falcons on a week that Daniels was out, and they blew it.
Last week: 6
7) 49ers (3-1): Since the 49ers' loss in the Super Bowl following the 2023 season, Brock Purdy is 7-10 with 16 INTs. He has 4 INTs in 2 games this season.
The 49ers have an impossibly easy schedule this season, but their next two games are at the Rams and at the Bucs. That's their hardest two-game stretch of the season by far, and it comes at a time when Niners fans are debating the wisdom of signing Purdy to a $255 million deal.
Last week: 7
6) Seahawks (3-1): The Seahawks have held all four of their opponents this season to 20 or fewer points:
And in the one game they gave up 20, they sacked Kyler Murray 6 times, broke up 8 passes, and had 2 INTs.
Last week: 8
5) Packers (2-1-1): The Packers' defense held a team to 13 points in Week 3, and they scored 40 points in Week 4, and somehow don't have a win to show for it. They'll have their bye Week 5, and then a very easy stretch thereafter:Â
• Week 6: Bengals
• Week 7: At Cardinals
• Week 8: At Steelers
• Week 9: Panthers
60,000 foot view: They look like the same old Packers that will be good enough to get into the playoffs, but are too inconsistent and still haven't yet figured out how to win weird games.
Last week: 5
4) Rams (3-1): "On pace" fun: Through four games, Puka Nacua has 42 catches for 503 yards. He's on pace for 179 catches and 2,138 yards. And as Ben Solak shows here, he's also contributing in the run game. He's No. 12:Â
He's a better run blocker than Grant Calcaterra.
Last week: 4
3) Buccaneers (3-1): Baker Mayfield competes his ass off, Bucky Irving is very comfortably a top 10 running back, and the Bucs are going to be absolutely loaded at wide receiver whenever Mike Evans returns to the field.Â
Combine that with an OL that should get better as they get guys back and a defense that has a lot of good players and is well run by Todd Bowles, and this is a legitimate Super Bowl contender. They (mostly) outplayed the Eagles on Sunday, but just made too many big mistakes.
This is a really good team, that fights.
Last week: 3
2) Lions (3-1): The Lions had an impressive "all three phases" win in Baltimore Week 3, and they had another one Week 4 against the Browns. They just have a lot of guys who can make big plays:Â
Lol the punter effort.
Last week: 2
1) Eagles (4-0): The Eagles have now started 4-0 in three of their last four seasons.
• They were the last remaining unbeaten team in 2022, when they lost Week 10.
• They and the 49ers were the last remaining unbeaten teams in 2023, when both teams lost in Week 6.
• They are the last remaining unbeaten team in the NFC in 2024, and one of just two teams who remain unbeaten in the NFL, along with the Bills.
Their four wins this year:
And yet locally, it feels like everyone is just waiting for the wheels to fall off. Certainly, there have been stretches during games this season in which the Eagles have looked, well, like crap, honestly. That's not new! Here's what we wrote in our "Eagles dumpster fire" post this summer:
In 2024, they lost at home to the Falcons Week 2 in a game in which they got torn up by Kirk Cousins of all people. In Week 3 against the Saints they didn't score a point until the fourth quarter. In Week 4 they got blown out by the Bucs. Even in 2023, when they actually started 5-0 they needed a drop (or he didn't keep his feet inbounds or whatever) by Kayshon Boutte to beat the crappy Pats Week 1, and they got all kinds of lucky breaks against the Vikings Week 2.
The Eagles always point to the fact that they have won their Week 1 game in each of the four seasons Nick Sirianni has been the head coach, but that doesn't exactly mean they have looked good doing it. The reality is that they have started slowly each of the last two seasons, partly because they have short training camp practices designed to keep players healthy for the regular season.
As noted above, the Eagles have a very difficult schedule to start the season. Their approach to training camp has worked so far, but it has potential this season to backfire.
Well, they're through that hard stretch, and they're perfect in the standings, with a chance to figure things out against a weaker upcoming quartet of opponents:
• Week 5: Broncos
• Week 6: At Giants
• Week 7: At Vikings
• Week 8: Giants
My advice: Take a deep breath, relax, and just watch them continue to win the vast majority of their games.
Last week: 1
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