Three NFL teams are staring at a crucial Week 4, and each one is already in a spot it can’t afford to make worse.
The Los Angeles Chargers are the loudest surprise on that list. No one saw Jim Harbaugh’s team opening 0-3, but that’s exactly the hole they’re in heading into Sunday.
The task doesn’t get any friendlier, either, because the 2026 schedule won’t get any easier. This weekend, the Chargers go on the road to face the Seattle Seahawks, where they’ll be serious underdogs.
If Los Angeles is going to keep its season from slipping away, Justin Herbert is going to have to carry the load and “put on his Superman cape this weekend.”
Houston is in a familiar kind of trouble. For the second straight year, DeMeco Ryans has watched his team stumble to an 0-3 start, and all the preseason buzz around the Texans has done nothing to solve their September problems.
They still have a path back, and last year showed they can rebound and make the playoffs. But if they drop to 0-4, that conversation gets a whole lot harder.
That makes Sunday’s matchup with the Dallas Cowboys a straight-up “must win” game.
Then there’s the Los Angeles Rams, who entered the season as the overwhelming Super Bowl favorites after adding Aaron Donald, Myles Garrett and Trent McDuffie to an already loaded roster. Instead, they’re sitting at 1-2 as they prepare to face the Philadelphia Eagles.
With the Buffalo Bills coming in Week 5, Sean McVay’s team badly needs to get back to .500 now. A loss to Philadelphia would leave the Rams in danger of falling seriously behind in the NFC West.
In Other News...
Texans Fans Wont Like What This Tank Dell Recovery Update Suggests
Tank Dells season remains in limbo as the Texans wide receiver stays on injured reserve with no timeline for his return after a serious knee injury. He has not been cleared to come back, and recent reports point to a recovery that is still ongoing as Houston continues to monitor his progress.
Dells situation is especially frustrating because this is not a quick reset after a routine setback. He suffered multiple knee ligament injuries more than 20 months ago, and he is still trying to get back to the speed and explosiveness that made him such a dangerous part of the Texans offense. For now, the best that can be said is that a return does not appear imminent, with the possibility of him getting back later in the season still hanging out there. [Read more 🡒]
Texans Have A Lead Problem At The Worst Possible Time
The Texans did the part that usually settles a home game early, getting on the board with a Nico Collins touchdown and adding enough from Kaimi Fairbairn to build a cushion against Dallas. For most of the first half, Houston looked like the team controlling the pace, answering the Cowboys field goals and keeping its foot in front even as the visitors chipped away with Brandon Aubrey kicks and a Javonte Williams scoring run.
But the part that matters now is what happens after a fast start, because Houston has spent enough of this game in control to make the next stretch feel decisive. The Texans carried their lead into the second half, yet the Cowboys kept hanging around, and in a week four matchup like this the difference between a steady advantage and a costly slip can be small enough to change the entire feel of the afternoon. [Read more 🡒]
Texans May Be Facing A Backfield Change They Cant Ignore
The Texans sluggish start has put their running game under a microscope, and Woody Marks is starting to look like a player who could force the issue. Through three games, the rookie has been a bit more efficient than veteran David Montgomery, and the difference has been enough to at least put a larger role on the table as Houston searches for anything that can spark a ground attack that has not done much to help the offense.
Houstons 0-3 record only sharpens the urgency, because the backfield has not produced the kind of consistent push the team needs. Montgomery still brings experience, but Marks has shown a little more explosiveness, and if the Texans are serious about changing the tone of their run game, they may not be able to keep treating the workload as settled. [Read more 🡒]