Ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement: the San Francisco 49ers and the Philadelphia Eagles are still undefeated, and who knows what happen from week five, but currently, they are the class of the National Football League.
The 49ers took advantage of what looked to be dated offensive concepts and just flat out looked faster than the Cowboys in a 42-10 win Sunday night in Santa Clara, Calif.’s Levi’s Stadium.
Earlier in the day, the Eagles did just enough to get out of SoFi Stadium with a 23-14 win over the Los Angeles Rams. Both San Francisco and Philadelphia moved to 5-0 with those victories.
Also around the league Sunday afternoon, in the games that started mid-afternoon, the New York Jets got their second win of the season, slipping past the Denver Broncos. Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes has now faced all the other 31 teams, and beaten them, as helped the Chiefs beat Minnesota Sunday.
And Ja’Marr Chase almost had 200 yards receiving and did have three touchdowns as the Cincinnati Bengals got back on track with a win at Arizona.
For more on the games that had early kickoffs, go here: NOON KICKOFF NFL ROUNDUP | Saints give Patriots a myriad of reasons to change things in 34-0 rout; Dolphins roll; Steelers beat Ravens; Jaguars sink Bills in London | The Football Beat
San Francisco 42, Dallas 10: Sunday night, San Francisco turned their NFC showdown with Dallas into a channel-changer.
Brock Purdy connected with tight end George Kittle early and often – three touchdown passes to Kittle, then another to Kyle Juszczyk – and the 49ers’ defense absolutely wrecked the Cowboys’ offensive game plan, intercepting Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott three times and holding CeeDee Lamb to five catches for 49 yards.
Dallas took a 14-0 lead before Prescott connected with KaVontae Turpin on a nice 26-yard pass to cut the 49ers’ lead in half (14-7) in the second quarter. But after that, SF running back Christian McCaffery scored on a 1-yard plunge to get that lead back to two touchdowns, and the Cowboys never got any closer.
Purdy, the former “Mr. Irrelevant,” because he’s not irrelevant any longer, was 17-of-24 for 252 yards and the four touchdowns. The 49ers have won every game Purdy has started except the NFC title game against the Eagles last season, where Purdy was injured super early in the game.
Jordan Mason had 69 yards and a rushing score, and McCaffery’s touchdown – he’s scored a TD in 14 straight games for the 49ers. Kittle finished with three catches, the three TDs, for 67 yards. Brandon Aiyuk had four catches for 58 yards, although a pass he caught from Purdy for 40 yards that was nullified on a penalty might have been Purdy’s best throw of the night. Deebo Samuel had three for 55 yards.
Prescott went 14-of-25 for 153 yards, the touchdown to Turpin and three interceptions. And the Cowboys’ running game was held to 57 yards. On top of that, Tony Pollard had an awful fumble, punched loose by linebacker Fred Warner, that led to a Niners’ score.
San Francisco (5-0) plays at Cleveland this weekend – the Browns had a bye on Sunday. And Dallas (3-2) visits the L.A. Chargers, who also had an open date.
Philadelphia 23, L.A. Rams 14: The Eagles had a precarious 17-14 lead going into the fourth quarter after a scoreless third by both teams, and then scored the only points of the second half on their near-trademarked push play, a quarterback sneak by Jalen Hurts that gave Philadelphia the win.
Hurts finished with 72 rushing yards and the score, and completed 25-of-38 passes for 303 yards, a touchdown (to tight end Dallas Goedert) and an interception. A.J. Brown had six catches for 127 yards; Goedert had eight for 117 yards; and D’Andre Swift rushed for 70 in the win.
Rookie Jalen Carter had two sacks and two tackles for loss, and Haason Reddick also had two sacks.
L.A. QB Matthew Stafford played well, going 21-of-37 for 222 yards and two scores, to rookie Puka Nacua (seven catches, 71 yards and the score) and to Tutu Atwell. Cooper Kupp returned from injured reserve, his first game this season, and had a big night: eight catches for 118 yards.
But the Rams’ running game didn’t do much, held to just 54 yards by the Eagles.
The Rams only sacked Hurts one time, and only hurried him twice. Ahkello Witherspoon did pick off Hurts.
Philly kicker Jake Elliott was 3-for-3.
Philadelphia plays at the New York Jets on Sunday afternoon, and the Niners play at Cleveland.
Cincinnati 34, Arizona 20: The Bengals took an early 10-0 lead, then found themselves in a 17-14 battle in the second quarter before holding the Cardinals to six points in the second half.
The story in this game was the re-establishment of the Bengals’ passing game, and of the connection between Joe Burrow and Chase, for which Arizona had no answer. Chase finished with 15 catches for 192 yards and three scores, and Trenton Irwin also had eight for 60. Joe Mixon ran for 81 yards on 25 carries, and Burrow went 36-of-46 for 317 yards, the three scores to Chase and an interception.
Joshua Dobbs, starting so far this season in place of the injured Kyler Murray, finally threw an interception (he threw two, actually, to Cam Taylor-Britt and to Germaine Pratt), after setting the Cardinals’ new record for starting the season without throwing a pick. Dobbs also had a lost fumble, and finished 15-of-32 for 166 yards, two touchdowns and the two picks.
Marquise Brown had four catches for 61 yards and a score, and Zach Ertz had two for 10 yards and another score.
Between James Conner, receiver Rondale Moore, Emari Demercado and Dobbs, the Cardinals ran for 142 yards – Demercado had a touchdown run.
Arizona fell to 1-4 with the loss and will play at the Rams on Sunday. Cincinnati will host Seattle, who’s coming off an open date.
New York Jets 31, Denver 21: The Hall Connection did the Broncos in on Sunday: a 72-yard touchdown run by Breece Hall, and then a 39-yard fumble recovery by defensive back Bryce Hall proved more than the Broncos could overcome, as they lost at home to the Jets (2-3).
Quincy Williams’ second sack of the day came at a very bad time for the Broncos (1-4), as Williams jarred the ball free from Denver quarterback Russell Wilson. It bounced free toward the sideline, but before it could get harmlessly out, Bryce Hall got to it, scooped it up and scored.
The win allowed former Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett – now the offensive coordinator for the Jets – a measure of revenge over the franchise that fired him after only one year.
Russell Wilson went 20-of-31 for 169 yards and two touchdowns, and ran for 49 yards on seven catches. Samaje Perine had 73 yards rushing. Trautman had 26 yards and a score on four catches, and Jaleel McLaughlin had three catches for 21 yards and the other score.
Jets quarterback Zach Wilson played well for a second straight game. Wilson went 19-of-26 for 199 yards, but he did throw an interception. He was also sacked four times, as was Russell Wilson.
Breece Hall finished with 177 yards and the score on 22 carries and the Jets finished with 234 rushing yards.
The Broncos fumbled the ball four times and lost three of them.
The Jets will host unbeaten Philadelphia on Sunday, and the Broncos have a quick turnaround: they’ll play an AFC West Division game at Kansas City on Thursday.
Kansas City 27 Minnesota 20: Speaking of the Chiefs – or maybe we should now call them Travis Kelce and the Kelce-aires – Mahomes now has a win over every single NFL team other than the one for which he plays.
Mahomes went 31-of-41 for 281 yards and two touchdowns, and Kelce caught 10 balls for 67 yards and one of those scores in this win. Kelce gave Chiefs fans, and all the bandwagon-jumpers due to his dating pop star Taylor Swift, a scare in the second quarter when he caught a second-quarter pass and then came out to go back for X-rays. But he did return to the game.
There was a controversial moment, though: with Minnesota driving with just over four minutes left, attempting to tie the game, and – with wide receiver Justin Jefferson injured earlier in the game and out – Minnesota quarterback Kirk Cousins threw a pass into the end zone to Jordan Addison, who was being covered by Chiefs corner L’Jarius Sneed.
Cousins was hit by Trent McDuffie as he threw the ball, and Addison and Sneed collided. Officials threw a flag for interference on Sneed, which would have given Minnesota the ball at the 1-yard-line.
But the flag was waived off, and in more salt in the wound for Vikings fans, Sneed yanked his helmet off to argue the call before the flag was waived. Sneed pulling the helmet off should have been a penalty, but it was not flagged, either.
Minnesota had one more possession, still down 27-20, with 1:07 left, beginning at their own 19-yard-line.
Cousins guided the offense all the way to the Chiefs’ 38-yard-line, but he was sacked on what would be the game’s final play by Mike Danna.
Cousins finished 29-of-47 for 284 yards and two touchdowns to Addison and to Alexander Mattison. Addison led the receiving effort with 64 yards on six catches. Jefferson caught three for 28 yards before his injury (more on that later today here on this site).
Minnesota lost fumbled twice and lost both. Marcus Davenport and Danielle Hunter each had a sack of Mahomes.
The Chies sacked Cousins three times and had five tackles for loss.
Kansas City, as mentioned, hosts Denver on Thursday – the Chiefs have won four straight since their loss to Detroit on opening night. Minnesota is 1-4, their own win coming at Carolina last Sunday.
