NFL Winners and Losers: Believe it, Vikings are contenders and Sam Darnold is an MVP candidate

When the Minnesota Vikings beat the San Francisco 49ers in Week 2, it was a nice upset. Then the Vikings beat the Houston Texans the following week, and it grew into a cool early season story.

Now there’s no mistaking what is happening with the Vikings anymore. They’re not just one of the best teams in the NFL, they might be the best team in the league based on the early returns.

If there was any wonder about the Vikings’ standing in the NFL’s hierarchy after a 3-0 start, they erased it after what happened at Lambeau Field. The Vikings led the Green Bay Packers 28-0 in the first half, and while the Packers rallied in the fourth quarter, Minnesota was so dominant though three quarters that it didn’t matter. The Vikings won 31-29 on Sunday in a performance that was a lot more impressive than the final score indicates.

Now the Vikings’ résumé looks a little different. No team has a trio of quality wins like the Vikings, and all three were unquestionable. The 49ers, Texans and Packers were all considered potential Super Bowl contenders, and the Vikings looked great against all three.

That must make the Vikings Super Bowl contenders themselves.

Vikings QB Sam Darnold has been fantastic. He had three touchdown passes before halftime on Sunday. He’s off to a blazing start and has done so without tight end T.J. Hockenson and with Jordan Addison missing two games. Addison returned Sunday and scored two first-half touchdowns.

Darnold threw an interception and lost a fumble in the second half, which helped allow the Packers to cut the Vikings’ lead to 28-22 early in the fourth quarter. Maybe that’s a concern given Darnold’s turnover issues through his career. But there’s no real reason to believe he’s going to fall apart.

Darnold struggled to start his career, but looking back, the story of his surge this season makes sense. He was a huge prospect out of USC. He went to a miserable situation with the New York Jets, then another bad situation with the Carolina Panthers. He spent a season with some competent coaching on the San Francisco 49ers, then went to another great coaching staff in Minnesota. He had the talent, just never the situation or the patience to let him develop. He looks like a new quarterback with head coach Kevin O’Connell calling plays. He’s just 27 years old and that’s not too late for a quarterback to have a career revival.

The offense has been very good, with Darnold playing as well as anyone in the NFL. The defense has been way better than anyone expected, with defensive coordinator Brian Flores getting endless praise for his dizzying schemes that have made every quarterback look bad this season. The 49ers had seven points through three quarters in Week 2, the Texans were shut out until late in the third quarter last week and, despite having Jordan Love back in the lineup, the Packers had zero points until the Vikings muffed a punt right before halftime to give Green Bay the ball at Minnesota’s 3-yard line. That’s the only time the Packers scored in the first three quarters. The way the Packers moved the ball in the fourth quarter might have shown some cracks, or it’s more likely the Vikings let down and that was the biggest factor in Green Bay suddenly looking decent on offense.

This Vikings team might be a massive surprise and it doesn’t look like a fluke. If you removed the preseason expectations and started with a clean slate in the opener, you’d see a highly efficient offense led by a quarterback who should get early MVP buzz, with a defense that has been arguably the best in the league. And it’s a team that has had decisive victories over three straight quality opponents. That looks like a championship contender.

Here are the rest of the winners and losers from Week 4 of the NFL season:

WINNERS

Chiefs, but with an asterisk: Kansas City is 4-0 but Sunday might not end end up being a happy day for the defending champs.

Kansas City’s defense came up big against a shorthanded Los Angeles Chargers team, leading the way to a 17-10 win. The Chiefs put together a late touchdown drive to pull out the win.

But the game might be remembered for an injury. Receiver Rashee Rice injured his knee, and if it’s serious then the Chiefs’ offense is perilously thin. Rice was doing most of the heavy lifting in the offense, which already had some players out, and his injury did not look good. In the win over the Chargers, running back Kareem Hunt emerged and ran the ball well for 69 yards, and Travis Kelce came alive with 89 yards. They’ll need more of that if Rice is out for a while.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: For the second time this calendar year, the Buccaneers completely outclassed the Philadelphia Eagles at home.

A lot of attention will to go to the no-show by the Eagles on Sunday, but give the Buccaneers credit. They looked bad in a Week 3 loss to the Denver Broncos but bounced right back with a strong 33-16 win over the Eagles that looked a lot like the playoff beatdown they delivered Philadelphia in January. Baker Mayfield had two passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown on the board less than 16 minutes into the game. The defense flustered a severely shorthanded Eagles offense.

Tampa Bay looked like perhaps the best team in the NFC South through two weeks. Now it seems that last week’s loss was just a blip for a good team.

Bears’ offensive approach: Chicago didn’t ask Caleb Williams to do everything Sunday, and the results were a lot better.

D’Andre Swift broke out of a slump with 93 yards rushing and a long touchdown, and Williams had a strong game. He passed only 23 times but completed 17 of them for 157 yards and a touchdown. Matthew Stafford had a late interception and the Bears beat the Los Angeles Rams 24-18.

The Bears were asking way too much of Williams the first few games of his career, including 52 passing attempts in Week 3. With a much more balanced approach, the Bears as a whole looked much better. Go figure.

Younghoe Koo: It helps to have a kicker you can trust from anywhere on the field.

The New Orleans Saints scored late to take a lead, and the Atlanta Falcons’ drive to answer it stalled. The Falcons had to decide whether to go for it or let Koo try a 58-yard field goal. Koo’s career long was 54.

Raheem Morris had Koo try it, and the kicker made the head coach look smart. Koo nailed it with two seconds left and the Falcons escaped with a 26-24 win. That kick is the difference between the Saints being 3-1 and 2-2, and the Falcons being 1-3 and 2-2. That’s a big swing in the NFC South.

The Falcons haven’t always been great this season, but they have a couple dramatic wins while they figure things out. They can thank their kicker for Sunday’s win.

Joe Flacco: Last season, Flacco was unemployed as November hit. He ended up winning NFL Comeback Player of the Year as he led the Cleveland Browns to the playoffs and had a new start to his career.

The Indianapolis Colts signed him this past offseason and they’re glad they did.

Flacco came in for Anthony Richardson when Richardson suffered a hip injury and did his job as a seasoned veteran. Flacco completed 16 of 26 passes for 168 yards and two touchdowns as the Colts got a big 27-24 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Colts don’t want to be without Richardson for long, but they know exactly what to expect out of Flacco if he has to play.

LOSERS

Jerod Mayo and the Patriots: All of a sudden, that strong start by the New England Patriots seems like many months ago.

The Patriots have looked like the worst team in the football the past two weeks. In Week 3, they were blasted by a Jets team that couldn’t even beat the Broncos on Sunday. And the Patriots lost their third in a row to the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers led 20-0 in the second quarter and cruised to the 30-13 win.

Soon, Mayo will have a tough decision to make. Jacoby Brissett didn’t play great again, and there will be growing pressure to play rookie quarterback Drake Maye.

Maye wouldn’t get a lot of help from his supporting cast, particularly a thin offensive line. But if the Patriots continue to get dominated like they have, something will have to change.

Cleveland Browns defense: There were questions about Deshaun Watson’s ability to play quarterback at a high level anymore, and those questions still exist. But when it came to the 2024 Browns, it seemed safe to believe that their defense would be good.

Nope. The Browns look like a bad football team that isn’t doing anything well, and that includes the defense. The Las Vegas Raiders were the worst rushing team in the NFL through three weeks and it wasn’t close. Against the Browns, they had no trouble moving the ball on the ground, sometimes through a series of end-arounds to receivers, rushing for 152 yards as the Raiders beat Cleveland 20-16. The Browns had a shot at the end, but Watson was sacked on fourth down deep in Raiders territory with the game on the line.

The Browns (1-3) look nothing like a playoff team, which they were last season. Watson has reinforced that he’s probably finished as an above average quarterback. The special teams did its part to lose too, with Dustin Hopkins missing an extra point that loomed large over the end of a four-point Raiders win. And now that the defense is suspect too, there aren’t many paths for the Browns to be a good team.

Arizona Cardinals: It was probably just a matter of time before the Cardinals’ defense was exposed.

The Washington Commanders are on a heater with their offense, led by impressive rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels. Still, the Cardinals getting carved up the entire day isn’t a good sign for them. The Commanders were in control the whole game in a 42-14 win over Arizona. Washington had nine possessions and scored points on seven of them.

It’s not like the Cardinals’ offense was great either. Kyler Murray had an early touchdown pass to Marvin Harrison Jr. and there wasn’t much to be impressed with after that. There won’t be many wins in Arizona if neither side of the ball is going to play well.

Doug Pederson: Coming close to beating the Houston Texans isn’t going to do much for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Jaguars battled and led until the final seconds, but C.J. Stroud hit Dare Ogunbowale for a short touchdown pass with 18 seconds left and the Texans won 24-20. The Jaguars are 0-4 and as the head coach of one of the NFL’s most disappointing teams, Pederson might be in a lot of trouble.

There was a key sequence at the start of the fourth quarter when the Jaguars had fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line. It seemed like a Trevor Lawrence run out of an empty set would be the play, and that’s exactly what the Jaguars did. The Texans weren’t fooled, Lawrence was stuffed and the Jaguars got nothing. That’s the type of uninspired play-calling that might cost Pederson his job before long.

Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets: The Jets had a game they should have won Sunday against the Denver Broncos. And they gave it away.

By the end of the ugly 10-9 loss in the rain, Rodgers was limping around and the Jets were a disappointing 2-2. They lost despite allowing negative passing yards in the first half.

The stat line for Broncos QB Bo Nix through two quarters was unbelievable. He had completed 7 of 15 passes for -7 yards. But the Jets didn’t do much themselves, and the Broncos were still in the game despite a shockingly bad offensive half.

That’s because the Jets couldn’t score. They had multiple chances late in the game to take the lead but couldn’t do it. Then, at the end, when the Broncos missed a field goal and the Jets gained a few yards to give their kicker Greg Zuerlein a 50-yard shot to win the game, Zuerlein pushed his kick wide right and the Broncos had the win. Maybe if the offense could have gotten a few more yards, the kick would have been easier.

The Jets looked great during a win over the New England Patriots in Week 3 and it appeared that was their first step toward being one of the NFL’s most dangerous teams. Then they had a massive step back on Sunday.

That Panthers revival: It turns out Carolina isn’t back, after all. But the Cincinnati Bengals are still somewhat alive.

The Bengals beat the Panthers 34-24 to avoid an 0-4 start. While the Panthers’ offense still looks much better with Andy Dalton at quarterback, the rest of the roster has issues. A win over the Las Vegas Raiders last week was nice, but Week 4 was a reminder that the Panthers are still a deeply flawed team.

For the Bengals, it was a huge victory. A fourth straight loss to start the season might have made them irrelevant in the AFC playoff race. They had a strong, balanced offensive attack and got the win. They have some renewed hope, while the Panthers had a reality check.