NFL 2016: Who Was NFL Week 4’s Biggest Loser?

Lots of teams looked bad in NFL Week 4, but only three teams truly stunk up the joint. Who was the biggest loser of the week?

We don’t care that the San Diego Chargers lost in high-scoring, debilitating fashion again, or that the Kansas City Chiefs got blown out by a contender, or that the Indianapolis Colts’ season may have just been put to rest. There are only three options for worst loss of NFL Week 4.

Which NFL team was this week’s biggest loser? Lots of bad losses by previously formidable teams, but we’ve narrowed it down to three.

Which was the worst loss of Week 4 in the NFL? There are only three choices:

New England Patriots: 0, Buffalo Bills: 16
Carolina Panthers: 33, Atlanta Falcons: 48
Arizona Cardinals: 13, Los Angeles Rams: 17

Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, breakdown the NFL 2016 in today’s NFL Sports Debate.

Todd Salem:

The Carolina game I can kind of understand. The Panthers have issues in the secondary that were exposed by one of the best wide receivers in the sport. It was egregious the way they covered and tackled Julio Jones, but the outcome was explicable. Once Cam Newton went out, the resulting loss (which wasn’t as bad as the final score until a pick six put the game to rest) was as well. Carolina takes no solace in being 1-3, but I get it.

I also get New England losing to Buffalo, though the way it happened was interesting. The Patriots were almost playing with house money at this point, having gone 3-0 without Tom Brady. Every Pats fan would have signed up for 3-1 during Brady’s suspension before the season started.

Losing to Buffalo and Rex Ryan has to sting, and getting shutout by a Bills defense that was very poor earlier in the year is not ideal either. But this was a game the Patriots did not need. Welcome back Brady. I would hate to be the Browns in any situation, but especially with them being the next team up on New England’s schedule.

The answer here is Arizona’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams. The Arizona offense has looked pathetic recently. Carson Palmer was average and then was hurt. The team can’t seem to utilize all of its offensive weapons in a cohesive way. And the defense is also hardly a stone wall. I expected this to be the best team in the conference prior to the season. Now, it’s a fair bet that they don’t make the postseason at all sitting with a record of 1-3.

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The odd thing is I also don’t know what the answer or the problem is. The Cardinals have the sixth-best point differential in the conference, but are also tied for the worst record in the NFC. What do we do with that information? Is the differential meaningless this early or is the record fluky? After a bad Bills game in Week 3, this Rams match was supposed to be the rebound. But it never came and no one knows if it will at this point.

Dan Salem:

I’m unable to wrap my head around the Patriots getting shut out, especially against a Bills team that looked vulnerable to the pass just two weeks ago. Yet Buffalo is no slouch and New England was playing it safe with a rookie at quarterback, so this is definitely not the worst loss of the week. I’m shocked by it, because it was a shutout, but otherwise the actual defeat is not that surprising.

What has been a bit more surprising is the Carolina Panthers’ defense—or lack thereof. They can’t stop anyone, especially the combination of Matt Ryan to Julio Jones. I liked the Falcons entering the season, but never would have guessed their division opponent would look so weak. This game was not very close and Carolina has to seriously find itself on both sides of the football. They lack pop on offense and have been unable to slow down opponents on defense. I’d be shocked if they make the playoffs at this juncture, but considering how the team has played thus far, I was not that surprised to see them get beat by a very hot Falcons team.

We are in agreement on Week 4’s biggest surprise loss and its two-fold. Not only have the Arizona Cardinals looked down right bad, but the Los Angeles Rams are a consistently solid football team that is in position to win a rather mediocre division if they can stay ahead of Seattle. But first, the loser. I don’t get what happened to Arizona. They nearly beat the Patriots in Week 1 and then dominated in Week 2. Buffalo made them look foolish and now the Cardinals can’t do a thing. If Carson Palmer is out for an extended period of time, then this team’s season is done. Drew Stanton is not leading them anywhere.

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I think we are only shocked by these outcomes because we underestimated the opponents and overestimated the losers based upon who we thought they were. We thought Carolina was still a great football team. Not so. We thought Arizona was the best team in the NFC West. Definitely not so. That honor belongs to Seattle and Los Angeles, with the Rams holding the edge because of winning head to head. We also thought the Patriots would just keep cruising, because somehow they did so for three straight weeks. That too was foolish, because even the best teams rarely win every game, especially with a rookie at quarterback.