Wild stats from NFL Week 4 featuring Cowboys, Bears, Eagles, Seahawks, more

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          Dak Prescott's late TD pass to CeeDee Lamb pushes Cowboys past Texans (0:31)

          • Ben SolakOct 4, 2026, 07:50 PM ET
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              Ben Solak joined ESPN in 2024 as a national NFL analyst. He previously covered the NFL at The Ringer, Bleeding Green Nation and The Draft Network.

          There was a moment in Sunday's early NFL window in which the Rams made it a one-score game, the Texans took the lead, the Bills took the lead and the Bengals made it a one-score game all within sixty seconds of one another. If the feeling of watching that were bottled and sold on the market, I would mortgage my house for it.

          Every Sunday, I'll find several of the coolest advanced stats from the day's NFL action to share with you -- stats to explain all the action and what it means. Some call them NFL Next Gen Stats. I call them Next Ben Stats: the data that might not make it on the broadcast but will make you a smarter fan (and laugh a little bit, probably).

          Let's start Week 4's list with a historic day for a Cowboys receiver, an NFC North offense and game-opening interceptions.

          Jump to an eye-popping stat on:
          Lamb tallies 17 catches | 0-4 teams to make playoffs
          Rams blitzed Hurts A LOT | Bears out-offensed the Jets
          Back-to-back interceptions

          17: Number of catches for CeeDee Lamb in the Cowboys' win over the Texans

          There were only 11 players Sunday with 17 or more rushes. That's the incredible volume at which Lamb was just used. It's only the ninth game in NFL history in which a player had 17-plus catches.

          The Texans spent much of the game letting the Cowboys play Lamb in the slot and hunt nickel Jalen Pitre in space -- and then again with rookie Kamari Ramsey when the Texans were in dime. Lamb saw 42.1% of his targets on the day from the slot, which is the second-highest slot share he has had since Brian Schottenheimer took over as head coach last year.

          When Lamb was out wide, the Cowboys threw him hitches incessantly -- almost any time they saw off-coverage from the Texans' outside corners. This was a game in which the Cowboys' offensive coaching staff dared the Texans' defensive coaching staff to continue sticking to their characteristically simple defensive approach. Houston refused to blink, and the Cowboys took the free yardage again and again and again.

          Houston's defense was a vaunted group last season. This year, they've had too many easy holes -- especially in end-of-game situations in which the ball is coming out faster than their pass rush can account for it. This Lamb performance is but an extreme example.

          1: How many 0-4 teams have made the playoffs since the start of the 1990 season

          The Texans will drive to become the second. To be fair, the Chargers, Titans, Bucs and Dolphins are also trying this. The Texans' attempt just feels a little more legitimate.

          Houston has lost three of four games by one score, and all three of those losses have had a score change within the final two minutes. In the Texans' 34-30 loss to the Cowboys, Houston had a win probability as high as 78.5% with two minutes left in the fourth quarter.

          It isn't just the close losses. In all four of their games so far, the Texans have had a better offensive success rate than their opponents -- yes, including the 14-point loss to the Bengals, in which they held the Joe Burrow-led offense to a 27.6% success rate, the worst number in a game of his career. The Texans' lack of balance is what kills them -- their running game was once again absent against the Cowboys, with 62 yards on 19 carries and a 23.5% success rate. Short-yardage snafus and clock management failures have been another issue. But this is a much, much better team than 0-4 would suggest.

          16: How many times Jalen Hurts was blitzed in Sunday's loss to the Rams

          That's the most blitzes the Eagles quarterback has seen since the 2024 season. Hurts had minus-9.3 total expected points added on blitzed dropbacks in this game -- the worst such game of his career by a comfortable margin. He was pressured on nine of 16 blitzes and went 4-for-14 as a passer with one first down.

          The blitz was considered Hurts' Achilles heel as a younger passer, and it was a heavily featured game plan for opponents in Philadelphia's postseason losses. It's easy to argue that he has put those concerns to bed and that this game -- without WR DeVonta Smith (hamstring), OT Lane Johnson (personal reasons), Saquon Barkley (left game, hamstring) and TE Dallas Goedert (knee) -- is an aberration, not a sign of regression. But it is worth noting that the Bears also blitzed Hurts at a high rate last week (43.3%), and Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula hit Hurts with a lot of blitzes last season (37.8%).

          This game, in which the Rams sent a blitz on 50% of Hurts' dropbacks, was the single-highest blitz rate of a Shula-called game. The Rams were able to keep the running back in protection -- a big deal when Barkley is that potential pass catcher -- and overwhelm rookie right tackle Markell Bell, who was making his first career start. But they also got Hurts to freeze in a couple of clean pockets and bail into a couple of unblocked pressures, which contributed to the Eagles' 0-for-12 day on third down. That's right, 0-for-12.

          The Eagles (2-2) haven't picked up a third down in their past 17 attempts. This dropback passing game is a disaster.

          Plus-57: How many more plays the Bears had than the Jets

          Want to see what a body-blows game looks like? A game in which the rushing attack just leans on the opponent until they crumble under the sheer weight of it?

          Chicago ran 89 offensive plays while New York ran 32 -- astonishing. This was only the fourth game with that big of a play differential since the 1970 merger. The Bears had 34 first downs (which is more plays than the Jets had in total) to the Jets' seven, and that 27 first-down differential is the biggest spread in a game in Bears franchise history. It's only the second game in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) in which a team had more first downs than their opponent had plays. The Bears held the ball for 42 minutes, 45 seconds -- over 70% of the game clock -- for the largest time of possession spread the Bears have enjoyed in a game since 1994.

          That this game ended only 23-12 is a total miracle. The Bears' first drive ended on a failed fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard-line. The three field goals all came at the end of 11-play drives with kicks from the Jets' 3-yard line and twice on the 12. A lot of missed TD opportunities there. Chicago then ended the game on a fever dream: an 18-play, 76-yard, 9:16 clock eater featuring two interceptions by the Jets that were overturned for defensive penalties -- demoralizing stuff.

          The Bears are 2-0 without quarterback Caleb Williams. They've walked out with two dominant game plans and should have enjoyed a second lopsided scoreboard in this one. Ben Johnson for Coach of the Year?

          2: Number of interceptions thrown in the first two plays of Chargers-Seahawks

          It's the first game since at least 1978 to start this way -- that's as far back as ESPN and the Elias Sports Bureau can go. The first offensive snap for the Chargers was Justin Herbert dropping back and blindly throwing into blanket coverage. Seahawks linebacker Drake Thomas leapt and snagged it out of the air.

          The first offensive snap for the Seahawks -- coming right after Thomas' interception -- featured Sam Darnold dropping back and blindly throwing a checkdown into a peeling Chargers defensive end. Tuli Tuipulotu accepts the gift gratefully.

          There's no important analysis here. It was just hilarious to watch.