Week 4 of the 2017 NFL season is underway, and Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers kicked it off with a bang against a listless Chicago Bears squad.
Despite a rash of injuries to his offense, Rodgers went off, completing 18 of 26 attempts for 179 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.
His nearly mistake-free performance set the stage for a week full of big games from individual fantasy stars, and it put his Packers at the top of a competitive NFC North.
Other standouts from around the league, as well as standings, can be found below:
Aaron Rodgers
Rodgers (and perhaps the Bears defense) made the game look pretty easy on Thursday Night Football. But even though they cruised to a 35-14 victory, the Packers didn’t leave the game unscathed.
With the game essentially wrapped up, Bears linebacker Danny Trevathan drilled a defenseless Davante Adams, who was already wrapped up, with a brutal helmet-to-helmet hit. Adams would leave the game on a stretcher, while Trevathan was given a two-game suspension the next day.
“This was a big character win for us,” Rodgers said of his injury-riddled team, per the Associated Press (via ESPN.com). “It’s been a next-man-up, no-excuses policy.”
That mentality will have to continue into next week, as Adams isn’t likely to be ready to go for Green Bay’s Week 5 matchup at the Dallas Cowboys.
“Davante Adams is in the concussion protocol,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said, per the team’s Twitter account. And that means another game with plenty of weight on Rodgers’ shoulders, something Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd said has become a Green Bay staple:
Even with a flawed roster that is heavily impacted by injuries, Rodgers should continue to be one of the NFL’s most dynamic weapons.
Deshaun Watson
If it wasn’t already clear enough, Deshaun Watson left no doubt that it’s his era of Houston Texans football against the Tennessee Titans.
In a 57-14 drubbing of a division rival, Watson piled up 283 passing yards, 24 rushing yards and five total touchdowns (four through the air and one on the ground).
The monster performance put him in pretty good historical company, per ESPN Stats & Info:
And this came against a Titans team that had just won back-to-back games over the Jacksonville Jaguars and Seattle Seahawks.
Days like this are extraordinary, but it’s clear that the Texans have something in their rookie quarterback. With Watson leading the offense and JJ Watt doing the same on the other side of the ball, Houston could be in line for a division title.
Cam Newton barely averaged double-digit fantasy points over the course of the first three weeks of the season. In Week 4, he doubled his season total of 32 points against a New England Patriots defense that could be in real trouble.
As a passer, Newton went for 316 yards, three touchdowns and an interception on 22-of-29 passing. He also ran for 44 yards and a touchdown, seen here on the NFL’s Twitter:
Now, of course, Newton won’t have the luxury of facing the Pats defense every week. So, questions of consistency remain with the former MVP. But scoring looked like a nightmare for Carolina through its first three games. Good signs are good signs.
Even if Newton is somewhere in the middle of this performance and the way he played up to this point, the Panthers could be dangerous once again.
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