NFL Week 4 blowout losses: Which teams should be concerned?

In an NFL season that had previously produced a remarkably high percentage of close games, Sunday was blowout central. Eight of Sunday’s 14 Week 4 games were blowout victories by two or more touchdowns, including the Sunday morning game from London and five of the games in the 1 p.m. ET window. Some of those big losses were expected. Joe Burrow & Co. getting dropped by 24 in Tennessee, though? That one wasn’t on many radars.

Let’s run through six of those eight blowouts to see how concerned fans should be about their teams. I’ll leave out two teams. There isn’t much to say about the Browns, who were routed 28-3 by Baltimore on a day in which they didn’t have starting quarterback Deshaun Watson and couldn’t do anything on offense with rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson under center. And while Cardinals fans have to be happy with how hard their team has worked this season, I don’t think any of them will be batting an eye at losing by 19 points to the 49ers.

Subscribe now: The Bill Barnwell Show

I’ll stack the other six teams in order of how concerned I feel about their situations after being blown off the field, starting with the team I’m least concerned about, in part because the team that routed it has been dominant each of the past three weeks.

Jump to a team that got blown out:
Bengals | Dolphins | Falcons
Patriots | Saints | Steelers

Week 4 result: Lost 48-20 to BUF

It’s not as much fun when you don’t drop 70 on the opposing team, is it? The Dolphins were never going to live up to expectations after they scored 10 touchdowns against the Broncos last Sunday, but one week after looking like it was about to make an NFL defense cry, Vic Fangio’s unit was happy to hear the final whistle. The Bills scored 48 points across their first nine drives on offense before letting up in the fourth quarter.

The simplest story for explaining what happened is more about what the Bills didn’t do than what they did. According to NFL Next Gen Stats data, Dolphins cornerback Xavien Howard was the closest defender in coverage on a pass attempt just once all game. Watching all the big plays back for Buffalo, you might have wondered whether he was even on the field. The star corner was an afterthought.

Instead, the Bills mercilessly attacked the other players in coverage for the Dolphins. Justin Bethel was likely the defender in coverage on a fake screen-and-go for a touchdown pass to Gabe Davis in the first quarter, and linebacker David Long was stretched for a long completion and on a touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs. The most frequent victim was second-year cornerback Kader Kohou.