Albert Breer’s Week 4 NFL Takeaways: How a Team Meeting Ignited the Cowboys’ Big Win

Another Sunday full of drama and stakes. And so here are The MMQB takeaways to wrap everything we saw up …

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Dallas Cowboys

What the Cowboys just pulled off is damn impressive. And I think, really, it started at a team meeting on Wednesday morning, as the team reviewed its loss to the Ravens.

There, Brian Schottenheimer stood before his players and fell on the sword for Dallas’s 34–31 loss to the Ravens in Rio last week. He told them he was disappointed in how he finished the game as an offensive play-caller. He told them he was disappointed in his handling of the game-ending situations in Brazil as their head coach. Then, he told them he’d be better because of it.

On Sunday, they were.

The Cowboys’ 34–30 win over the Texans on Sunday was big by any measure. Dallas came in 1–2, and Houston came in as the proud, wounded animal at 0–3. Schottenheimer’s group had to come back from Brazil, with 10-and-a-half-hour flights each way, and go on the road again on normal rest. The loss itself was crushing, too.

But add in the fact that Dallas fell behind by 10 at the half, and again in the third quarter, and came back against Houston’s fearsome defense, and you get perspective on just what the Cowboys pulled off after their coach found a way to pull them together four days ago.

“The way I look at this thing, man, is we’re hypocrites as coaches if when we make mistakes we don’t own up to it,” Schottenheimer told me from the bus postgame. “Obviously, players take a lot of criticism. They take a lot of coaching. And this is a situation where, look, we didn’t handle it very well. And if I’m not able to lead from the front and be accountable, then how can I stand up in front of them and ask them to be accountable?

“It wasn’t a fun week, in terms of going through the stuff that comes with it. But I know my players love me.”

They showed it in how they played. And this day’s biggest star-Houston homecoming king CeeDee Lamb, who finished with a staggering 17 catches for 189 yards and the game-winning score-actually said it after the game, telling the Dallas media, “I just want Schotty to know I got his back. I’m with him. I’m one of his strongest soldiers.”

It took plenty of those to win this one.

The Cowboys were down 16–6 at the half, and 23–13 with 20 minutes left, and facing off against perhaps this generation’s greatest collection of defensive talent. The Texans were playing fast, and responding furiously to their 0–3 start. And the Cowboys’ retort was to follow the direction their coach gave them during the week.

Schottenheimer told the players and coaches alike that everyone had to be more consistent, and everyone had to learn how to finish. It was reiterated, without panic, at halftime.

It turned out consistency would be needed, and the Cowboys’ offense, and Dak Prescott in particular, delivered it, with Dallas churning out 18 first downs on the vaunted Texans after the break, and scoring touchdowns on four of five second-half possessions, with drives that lasted four, seven, 14 and 11 plays. And there was a finishing touch in there, too, with the 11-play drive covering 74 yards and taking all but 40 seconds off the clock to win it.

“It starts with Dak, and the grit, he was getting his ass knocked off in the first half,” Schottenheimer said. “There was another one, we have George Pickens on a double move in the fourth quarter for a touchdown, Will Anderson hits him and the ball goes flying. I mean, this guy doesn’t waver, man. This guy is an incredible leader. He’s an incredible competitor. He just stood in there, man. When his number’s going to be called, he’s going to deliver.”

He wasn’t the only one. With the Texans’ coverage built to take Pickens away, the Cowboys were able to get Lamb matched up on Jalen Pitre, and clearly took advantage of that. Pickens made plays, too, despite the attention. His 53-yarder keyed Dallas’s second touchdown drive of the third quarter, which kept the Cowboys in it.

But more than just the details of this one, there’s how they’ll take this forward.

Schottenheimer’s whole thing from the time he got the job, 21 months or so ago now, was that he wanted to build the best environment in sports. His feeling was that if his best players were his best people, the Cowboys would have their best chance to break a 30-year championship drought. And what he envisioned was on display this week, as adversity hit.

As is always the case in Dallas, many questions were asked of the team after the Ravens loss. Everyone in-house responded, starting with Schottenheimer himself, by looking inward. The results were obvious to everyone in the building and, on Sunday, anyone watching, too.

“Our best players are truly some of our best guys. They carry the brotherhood that we talk about,” Schottenheimer said. “On defense, you got Quinnen Williams, Kenny Clark, Donovan Ezeiruaku. Caleb Downs is great in that regard. On offense, you’ve got Dak Prescott, Tyler Booker. I mean, listen, no one talks enough about Tyler Booker and the type of stud that this guy is. The way he’s wired. Javonte Williams doesn’t say much, but is [that type too].

“We built that this way on purpose because when you’re the Cowboys and you’re in this league, the parity, the ups and downs are real. Those guys make it easy, man. They carry the message. They never waver. And winning games like this helps really teach you how to do it.”

It’s good that the Cowboys now know, too, since their next game is fast approaching. That schedule-Brazil, a road game, then a Thursday nighter-isn’t what anyone would’ve asked for, of course. But it sure is showing who, and what, Schottenheimer’s crew already is.

Los Angeles Rams

Speaking of adversity, the Rams answered the bell in Philadelphia. The Fox cameras caught an interesting scene with less than three minutes left in the third quarter Sunday, and Los Angeles trailing 20–10 at soggy Lincoln Financial Field. There was Sean McVay, headset off and in his left hand, demonstratively addressing his offensive starters.

They were collectively staring down the barrel of a 1–3 start. So McVay wasn’t making a game plan adjustment here.

“There wasn’t really anything crazy. It wasn’t anything out of the norm,” running back and captain Kyren Williams said from the team plane afterward. “He was just telling us, Man, believe in who we are. Believe in this team. Believe in each and every individual on this team. Believe in it. It’s just a belief that we’ve got to have, to go out here and play the game that we know how to play. And that’s all it was.

“It wasn’t like, Oh, I’m going to call this play. I’m going to call that play. It was all just about believing in each other, believing in the organization, believing in the system, and just going out to work and just being who we are. That’s all.”

It didn’t work right away-the Rams’ next possession ended with a turnover on downs in minus territory-but it would eventually.

Over the last half of the fourth quarter, after the defense got a fourth-and-goal stop at the 2 with 7:26 left, the offense churned out a 10-play, 98-yard drive, then a 10-play, 79-yard drive to stamp a methodical comeback that a staunch Philly defense made them earn. There were no big splash plays-Vic Fangio’s unit wasn’t going to give them those-and that only worked to illuminate just how good the Rams can be, paper-cutting their hosts to death.

“The way that we continue to keep fighting, like, there was no one single play,” Williams said. “It’s how we came together as a team. And obviously the defense played their butts off. They were able to get us back on the field and get that fourth-down stop on that first push. And that’s where all it was, man. We’re just believing that’s all it is at the end of the day, man. Some things aren’t going our way. That’s O.K.

“You got to know who we are, go out there and trust it. And that’s all it was.”

And just like the Cowboys, the Rams’ resilience is shining through in the draw that the league delivered them, one that’s unrelenting because of their place on the NFL marquee.

The Rams opened in Australia, before coming home to play on a Monday night, then making a short-week trip to Denver, before going back to L.A. then cross-country to Philly. Next up? Another Monday nighter, this one against a Bills team coming off a loss. But just like the Cowboys, the Rams’ survival of this scheduling meat grinder is revealing how equipped they are for it.

“One-thousand percent,” said Williams. “I think that when you’ve run into adversity early, it teaches you. It teaches you how to go back on those moments. Say later on in the season, we’re in a situation that we want to be in, we can go back to these moments to when we’re in Philly or we’re in Australia or in Denver. We can go back to these moments and see what we did and see how we were able to stay connected.”

Which, really, is all McVay was trying to lean on at that moment.

San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers keep winning, and winning in different ways. Their first two games were blowouts, one fueled by the run game (Rams), the next by a near-perfect effort from Brock Purdy (Dolphins). The third game (Cardinals) became a shootout, and Sunday’s 24–14 win over a really good Broncos team was a rock fight.

The players know what you’ve been thinking. The core is old. They’re already banged up.

But they’re also 4–0. And not surprised in the least that they’re back in this position again.

“I think that people didn’t-I don’t know-I guess they didn’t really take us very seriously before the season started because we did have a lot of guys who were quote-unquote older, and guys who were coming off of injuries,” All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner told me after the win. “So I think the thing that separated us all along was, yeah, we have a lot of talent, but we have guys that regardless of whatever we’ve achieved in this league, we’re all hungry to continue to get better. And continue to prove it every single week.”

Indeed. The greybeards keep rolling: Christian McCaffrey had 18 touches for 70 yards and a score, George Kittle four catches for 70 yards and a game-clinching 56-yard touchdowns, Mike Evans five catches for 76 yards, and Kyle Juszsczyk two catches for 28 yards. Trent Williams anchored the line at left tackle. Warner and Dre Greenlaw led the team in tackles. Greenlaw’s the youngest of that bunch, at 29.

That age also equals experience, institutional knowledge and, generally speaking, guys who can play to the moment. That happened again Sunday, with Kittle’s long catch and a defensive stand thwarting Denver’s final comeback bid.

Here’s the other thing: It adds up to urgency for a group of guys that have spent a lot of time together and are driven to get that elusive trophy to be remembered by.

“You definitely are aware of that, and I’ve been super grateful and blessed to be a part of this organization and have opportunities to win the whole thing,” Warner said. “Obviously, we dealt with some heavy losses, being in [the Super Bowl] twice and not being able to hoist that trophy. So you do realize that you don’t have forever with the same group of guys, and you want to make the most of the opportunity.”

So far, this year, it’s fair to say the Niners have.

And now, to their division rival and next week’s opponent …

Seattle Seahawks

It’s clear the Seahawks are adjusting to having the target on their back. It’s fair to say the Seahawks are getting everyone’s best shot. Last week, it was Marcus Mariota and the Commanders winning a shootout over the defending champs. This week, Seattle had to hold off a frantic comeback by the winless Chargers.

Yes, the home team won, 30–23. But the Seahawks acknowledged in the aftermath that, as the Chargers fought to keep their season alive, Seattle made it harder than it had to be.

“Honestly, it’s more about us than it is about the other team,” edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu told me postgame. “You learn that we got to pay attention to those details. We can’t let our emotions get too high. When we got these teams backed up, we have plenty of penalties and give them free first downs, free yards. And we can’t let that happen.”

Of course, Nwosu is right. The Seahawks had 14 penalties for 150 yards this week. A face mask overturned a third-down stop on the Chargers’ first touchdown drive, in the third quarter. Personal fouls turned second-and-17 and third-and-24 into first downs on the next one.

And so what looked like a laugher at 27–6 five minutes into the second half wound up becoming a dogfight-the Seahawks needed a strip-sack from Nwosu to finish L.A. off.

That doesn’t mean the Seahawks, at 3–1, isn’t going back to the Super Bowl.

It does mean they’ve got work to do, starting this week. And wearing that target on their backs will continue to make that apparent to the outside world until that work is done.

“You got to go through adversity in this league and we’re hitting it hard early, with the injuries and guys coming in and out of the lineup,” Nwosu said. “So it’s only going to make us stronger at the end of the day when everybody’s ready to go.”

As for the Niners’ side of next week’s showdown, Warner said simply, “It’s everything.” He then added it’s only everything because the next game always is.

But if he’s being honest, I’d say Warner would admit this one will mean a little more.

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New England Patriots

That was a culture win for Mike Vrabel’s Patriots. The season wasn’t on the line for New England on Sunday in Buffalo, but it might’ve felt that way. A loss would’ve put the Patriots three games back of the Bills in the AFC East. And the dogfight for the three wild-card spots in the conference looks like it’s going to be difficult. And the Patriots were without three of their four highest-paid players Sunday. And the questions publicly, about the team and its quarterback, over the past week were very big-picture.

Winning in Buffalo should quiet noise on that, at least for now, and on a few different fronts.

First and foremost, it should settle things for Drake Maye, who was working through choppy waters last week. Not only did he outplay Josh Allen on Sunday, going 22-of-37 for 269 yards, three touchdowns and a pick, he led an eight-play, 73-yard scoring drive to win the game, punctuated by a fantastic third-down touchdown throw to Efton Chism III, who made a spectacular, leaping, one-handed catch on the 23-yarder.

“We all believe he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the league,” Chism told me postgame. “He makes plays each and every week, each and every day in practice. And so we just got to continue to be there for him. And any time he gives us an opportunity as receivers or as running backs or anyone, be there for him so he can build that confidence in himself, like we all know he has. He’s an awesome player, an awesome captain and an awesome guy.”

The defense was awesome too, generating two turnovers and a steady stream of pressure on Josh Allen, and doing it without Christian Gonzalez or Christian Barmore. The second of those turnovers, a Craig Woodson pick of an Allen YOLO throw, salted away the upset win. And the run game went for 143, with Maye scrambling around for 54 of those on his own.

So now, the Patriots are 2–2, and back in it, which is all they could accomplish Sunday.

After the week they had, it was obvious that was enough for the guys in the locker room.

“I think it’s just that no matter what’s going on in previous weeks or what’s the future, we’re focused on it and we’re continuing to build that identity,” Chism said. “And it’s not going to become something overnight. We’re going to have to continue to finish, and have the effort to finish, and just be those guys out there that continue to play relentlessly.”

Which is basically what those guys were last year.

Jacksonville Jaguars

In a weird way, the Jaguars needed that one. Since Jacksonville’s Week 8 bye last year, Liam Coen’s team is a stellar 12–2 in the regular season. And somehow, Sunday’s win was just the Jaguars’ fourth one-possession victory over that time with none of those, including this one over the Bengals, coming against a 2025 playoff team. Jacksonville’s last such win? Over the Chiefs in Week 5 of last year.

Still, the Bengals are good, and have Joe Burrow at quarterback, and this one came on the road.

As such, there was significance in what the Jaguars were able to do Sunday. They went up 22–10 on Cincinnati. Burrow brought the home team back. And the visitors needed safety Rayuan Lane III to stone Chase Brown-on fourth-and-10 from the Jacksonville 21 with 50 seconds left-a yard short of the market, to get the team’s third win of the young season.

“A lot of our wins, we’ve been up a lot of points,” veteran pass rusher Josh Hines-Allen told me postgame. “So for us to go into a situation where we can just get a fourth quarter, put the ball in our hands, put the ball in the defense’s hands, I think it’s a step in the right direction for us. It was a great game. A lot of games come down to the fourth quarter, the last two-minute drives. And we’ve been winning a lot of games by double scores lately.

“So for us to go in here, we couldn’t win the first time we were in this situation with Denver, so we had to pick it up and be like, Hey, we can win those type of games.”

The Week 2 Denver game mirrored this one in a lot of ways. The Jags went up 10 in that one, holding a 13–3 lead late into the third quarter, before the Broncos rallied for a 20–13 win. But there was no PTSD this time around, nor was there much doubt.

And that, according to Hines-Allen, is mostly because there was no thought of that past, or at least no thought past what they’d done this week to beat the Bengals.

“We practice the way we play,” Coen said. “We go in every Monday, every Tuesday, every Wednesday, every Thursday, every Friday with that mentality-we are the best and we’re going to win every game. But it starts with us worrying about us.”

They, at this point, are pretty damn good.

Kenneth Walker III

Kenneth Walker III might be the best pickup of the 2026 offseason. The Chiefs’ bell cow didn’t just have 177 yards on 22 carries Sunday. He scored the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, then, after the Raiders fumbled the ensuing kickoff-on a perfect peanut punch by Jeffrey Bassa-he scored again, from 22 yards out, on the next play.

Which is just a small window into all he’s done for the Chiefs. With Bijan Robinson still yet to play in Week 4, Walker leads the NFL with 621 scrimmage yards. He already has a league-leading 99 touches, which is an average of a sliver under 25 per game.

He’s helping the team manage Patrick Mahomes’s return from a torn ACL. His presence is even more important now, after Rashee Rice and Tyquan Thorton got hurt on Sunday.

And as we’ve said before, he’s so affordable, having signed with the Chiefs in March for $43.05 million over three years. On an average per year basis, that’s less than half what Alec Pierce got in Indianapolis. It’s a little more than half what pass rusher Odafe Oweh got in Washington. It’s less than receiver Rashid Shaheed got in Seattle, or guard Alijah Vera-Tucker in New England or receiver Wan’Dale Robinson in Tennessee.

You can decide for yourself who’s more valuable.

Because of how running backs are valued, even Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs, who signed for less than $23 million per year in August, are bargains. By comparison, Walker is a flat-out steal. Give the 4–0 Chiefs credit for recognizing it.

Bryce Young

Bryce Young is playing great. Yeah, Detroit’s defense isn’t great. But Young was Sunday night-and if you watched, you saw it. When 2023’s No. 1 pick is at his best, he has an uncommon calm in the pocket, and the ball jumps from his hands, and all that was on display against the Lions.

And more than just that, there’s evidence that what we saw is who Young’s becoming.

The 25-year-old was 29-of-41 for 329 yards, two touchdowns, no picks and a 110.7 rating. It was the eighth time in 11 regular-season games, going back to last year, that Young had a passer rating over 95. He got the ball to fellow top-10 pick Tetairoa McMillan, who had 14 catches for a career-high 192 yards and two scores. Young made crucial throws-like a fourth-and-4 toss to Darren Waller for nine yards in the fourth quarter-to set up scores. He made high-leverage plays, converting a third-and-14 with an 18-yard dime to McMillan, too.

On this night, at least, Young brought to life the old Steph Curry comp that Bill O’Brien, his OC at Alabama, gave him. He looked, quite simply, like the kind of diminutive, play-making distributor that Carolina drafted to be three and a half years ago.

After Carolina’s bye, he’s got a trip to Philly in two weeks, and we’ll see how it holds up there.

Winless teams

Five teams are 0–4. And I figured, quickly, we could give you a thought on each of them …

• There’ll be a lot of focus on quarterback C.J. Stroud and the Texans’ offense this week. The undersold story of Houston’s 0–4 start is how the defense is struggling. The Texans have allowed 109 points, tied for fifth most in the league. Again, Dallas scored four touchdowns in five second-half possessions against them Sunday.

• Give the Chargers credit for their pluck. They were down 27–6 midway through the third quarter. Justin Herbert took a beating and kept battling back, leading consecutive scoring drives of 81, 85 and 74 yards. That closed the deficit to 30–23, and the Chargers had the ball at their 11 with 1:42 left, with a chance to drive the field and tie it. You know what happened next. So say this much: The team hasn’t quit. But with Denver and Kansas City next, its season is certainly on the brink.

• The Titans are going to need to see more from Cam Ward than they have, if they’re going to pass on quarterbacks in the 2027 draft. The good news for 0–4 Tennessee? Other young guys, like Carnell Tate (nine catches, 145 yards on Sunday), are starting to come along.

• It’s starting to feel like change is coming in Tampa. We’ve seen in the past how bad showings in stand-alone games can prompt those sorts of things-and the Buccaneers travel to Dallas for a Thursday night game this week.

• Finally, the Dolphins acquitted themselves well, again, on Sunday, giving the unbeaten Vikings all they could handle in Minneapolis. And the young guys are a huge part of it. One name that shouldn’t be lost in the Dolphins starting 0–4 is rookie linebacker Jacob Rodriguez, who’s already got the green dot on his helmet and had 18 tackles against the Vikings.

Quick-hitters

All right, and with that, it’s on to the quick-hitting takeaways. Let’s go …

• Shout-out to Jonathan Taylor, who had key, timely runs for a Colts team hurting for offensive playmakers right now, that got just a so-so effort from Daniel Jones in London. Indianapolis won 30–13 in London, and Taylor’s 97 yards on 21 touches stabilized the offense, allowing the team to ride a defense facing a third-string quarterback to a breezy victory.

• Marcus Mariota’s knee injury-believed to be to his MCL-will be checked out back in Virginia on Monday. If he’s out for an extended period, I’d expect the Commanders to explore their options, even with Jayden Daniels a real possibility to come back next week.

• The Bears have three wins, each with a different starting quarterback. This week, with Tyson Bagent, they ran up 492 yards and 34 first downs on the Jets, while scoring 23 points. Yeah, Ben Johnson was a pretty good hire.

• The Giants are 3–1, Arvell Reese looks like a star, Deonte Banks’s career has been revived, Malik Nabers had a massive game, Jameis Winston was efficient … and who knows?

• The Packers are now 2–2, with a chance to pull even with the Bears in the NFC North when Chicago comes to Lambeau next week. And if they can do that, they could have Micah Parsons back the week after when the Cowboys come to town. Yes, that’s an optimistic way of looking at it, with a team that hasn’t looked very good. But things can flip fast.

• Brian Flores’s defense has allowed a league-low 51 points. And since halftime of Week 1-that’s three and a half games-that Vikings group has allowed just two touchdowns. Wild.

• While we’re there, Kyler Murray did show some signs he’s turning a corner late in the Vikings’ win over the Dolphins on Sunday. There’s even a rapport with T.J. Hockenson, which is potentially huge, since Murray has historically struggled throwing over the middle.

• The Chiefs’ receiver situation is at a critical point with Thornton and Rice down. So, yes, Tyreek Hill, when healthy, would be a candidate to come aboard. Thing is, Kansas City probably needs some help before then.

• I’m with JC Tretter on this one. And if you want more from me on how the league is treating officials now, here you go.

This kind of behavior from an official towards a player is unacceptable. Players are consistently held accountable when the roles are reversed. We expect the NFL to hold officials to the same standard. pic.twitter.com/vawHA8Jrlt

– JC Tretter (@JCTretter) October 4, 2026

• Finally, I can’t wait to see the Superdome Monday night. And I can’t believe it’s been 20 years since the Domecoming game. What a night it should be for Falcons-Saints.

This article was originally published on www.si.com as Albert Breer’s Week 4 NFL Takeaways: How a Team Meeting Ignited the Cowboys’ Big Win.

Copyright ABG-SI LLC. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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This story was originally published October 4, 2026 at 10:31 PM.