Four Ups, Four Downs: Week 4
On this week's Four Ups. Four Downs, we'll take a look at some defenses coming alive, opening up some offensive possibilities, and some disappointing quarterback play.
Up: Unleashing Abdul Carter
When the Giants drafted Abdul Carter, thoughts immediately arose about how to get him on the field alongside Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux. Those three pass rushers could be devastating to any opposing offensive line. The first three weeks were hit or miss, including Week 3 against the Chiefs when Carter spent most of the game off the line as an off-ball linebacker and only rushed the passer on 74.3% of his pass snaps.
Against the Chargers, Carter found his groove. According to Next Gen Stats, Carter had eight pressures, seven of which were quick pressures, and he averaged 1.91 seconds to pressure. Once Chargers tackle Joe Alt left the game, the Giants teed off on Justin Herbert, with Carter leading the charge.
Through the first three weeks, the Giants ranked 31st in the rate of stunts used at 7.4%, per MatchQuarters, but they leaned on those to mess with the Chargers’ offensive line.
Carter had a 0.79-second pass rush get-off against the Chargers, the quickest he’s gotten off the line through his first four games. He worked poor Austin Deculus with multiple moves, including a spin near the Chargers’ own goal line.
He followed that up by cleanly and quickly bearing Deculus around the edge.
Carter’s seven quick pressures were the most by a defender in a game this season and the most since Trey Hendrickson had seven in Week 9 of the 2024 season, which was the only such game last year. This pass rush isn’t going to get to face an injury-depleted offensive line every week, but this might have been a step to getting Carter into the right place and allowing him to fire off the edge instead of trying to move him around and force him on the field.
Down: Green Bay end-of-game management
With 1:15 remaining in overtime, the Green Bay Packers had the ball on the Dallas 25-yard line with two timeouts remaining. Down by three after the Cowboys kicked a field goal on the opening overtime possession, the Packers could have won with a touchdown. After a six-yard pass to Romeo Doubs put the ball at the 19, Green Bay had a 72.2% win probability, according to ESPN.
The Packers didn’t throw a ball into the end zone until the final play from scrimmage, which barely touched the ground before the game clock went to all zeros. Green Bay’s following plays were a seven-yard run by Emanuel Wilson, a poorly executed screen to Matthew Golden that lost three yards, and a checkdown to Wilson for a loss of one. The checkdown came after the Packers tried to suck the Cowboys in with the same screen action of Golden on the other side of the formation.
Here’s the blown-up screen:
Now here’s the screen motion in an attempt to get one of the deep routes off it. Despite the Cowboys only having two immediate defenders to that side of the ball, they didn’t care about the screen and the minimal gain that might have been. Both Reddy Steward (27) and Trevon Diggs played both routes, staying between the screen from Golden and the half-sell of a potential block from Dontayvian Wicks, while Markquese Bell ran with Romeo Doubs into the end zone.
Throughout the second half, the Packers stuck to the ground with a 50-50 run-pass split on early downs, despite the Cowboys entering the game as the league’s worst pass defense. The pass had been successful in this game already, with Love finishing the game with 0.53 EPA per dropback and a 60.3% success rate, per FTN. The Packers let up on the gas in the second half and inexplicably slammed on the brakes at the end of overtime to take a tie.
Up: Xavier Worthy’s gravity
Without Xavier Worthy in the lineup, the Chiefs' offense reverted to its previous condensed struggles. There’s only so much an offense can do when the 2025 version of Hollywood Brown is the field-stretcher. Worthy hasn’t been a consistent vertical threat during his career, but his presence helped open up the offense against a struggling Baltimore secondary.
Worthy had an instant impact in his return to the field following his Week 1 shoulder injury from a collision with Travis Kelce. He had a 16.6-yard aDOT, per PFF, a figure he only beat twice during his rookie season, and those came in games with two and three targets. Worthy finished the game with five catches for 83 yards on eight targets. His speed was used all over the field.
The Chiefs motioned him across the formation and saw man coverage against Marlon Humphrey. Humphrey never fully got set and flailed in an attempt to get his hands on the receiver. Worthy got behind the corner for a free run down the sideline for 37 yards.
He also had an end-around, opposite motion and run action to the other side.
On the touchdown to Hollywood Brown, Worthy started in the backfield and a run fake to Kareem Hunt brought in the deep safety, which opened up the end zone for Brown.
With Worthy in the lineup, the Chiefs were able to open up the middle of the field. It was a mix of everything the Kansas City offense has wanted to do over the past few seasons. The deep shots were open but just as importantly, it opened up the middle of the field for Patrick Mahomes to hit off of quick game.
This is closer to what the Chiefs expected the offense to look like and it should develop more when Rashee Rice comes back to the lineup.
