Previewing NFL Week 4’s Five Best Games
The five best games to watch in Week 4 (all times Eastern):
5. Jaguars at Jets, Sunday, 1 pm, CBS. We’ll start with one you might not expect. I’m still trying to figure out if what we’ve seen through three weeks from Jacksonville is real, and coming back from London and having to go to New York for a sleepy 1 pm kickoff should be an interesting test of the Jags’ focus. And the young Jets showed resolve last week.
4. Redskins at Chiefs, Monday, 8:30 pm, ESPN.Kansas city has the NFL’s best résumé right now, and Arrowhead will be rocking—which only gives the Redskins a better setup to make a big time statement. Jay Gruden’s got two new coordinators, Kirk Cousins lost two big-time receivers, and yet Washington has been impressive in dealing convincing losses to the Rams and Raiders the last two weeks. Winning in K.C. in primetime would take that to another level.
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3. Giants at Bucs, 4:05 pm, Fox. I’d be skirting the truth if I didn’t tell you there was an element of rubber-necking to this one. Falling to 0-3 in heartbreaking fashion like the Giants did and dealing with the resulting fallout could well leave a mark, as could facing a talented Bucs team looking to rebound off a bad loss.
2. Steelers at Ravens, Sunday, 1 pm, CBS. It’s No. 2 here, just because it’s my favorite NFL rivalry, and because both teams are facing gut-checks. All of Baltimore’s defensive progress went out the window in Week 3 against Jacksonville, and the Steelers can test the Ravens on every level. And Joe Flacco absolutely has some questions to answer here, too. We should know more about both teams by about 4:30 Eastern on Sunday.
1. Panthers at Patriots, Sunday, 1 pm, Fox. And finally, at 1 pm, the Patriots and Panthers, and Tom Brady and Cam Newton face off in Foxboro. So here’s what’s interesting for me here—the concerns some Carolina coaches had on Cam coming into the season have manifested themselves, as have the concerns the Patriots had about their front seven. Those problems will be pitted against one another, and we’ll see where we stand with a 60-minute test of whose issues are more serious.
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