NFL Research offers the best nuggets from each week of games in the NFL. Here are the most eye-popping statistical accomplishments from Week 4 of the 2023 NFL season.
1) Josh Allen and Co. re-established divisional dominance in a 48-20 win in Buffalo
Last week the Dolphins had a performance for the ages, scoring 70 points via 10 touchdowns. This week it was their opponent’s turn to set records. The Bills have quietly won each of their last three games by at least 28 points, tied for the longest streak in the Super Bowl era. The only team in NFL history to win four consecutive games by at least 28 points was the 1942 Chicago Bears.
Allen finished Week 4’s win with as many passing touchdowns as incompletions (four), ran in an 11-yard score and had a perfect passer rating (158.3).
The only other player in the Super Bowl era with four passing touchdowns, one rushing score and a perfect passer rating is Aaron Rodgers in Week 7, 2019 against the Raiders.
This was the third time in Allen’s career that he had at least four passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown in a single game, tied with Rodgers for the second-most since 1950. Only Drew Brees has more than Allen and Rodgers (four such games).
2) Stefon Diggs was the main recipient of Allen’s big day
Diggs found himself in familiar territory, hauling in three of Allen’s four touchdown passes and totaling 120 receiving yards. This was Diggs’ fourth career game with at least 120 receiving yards and three touchdowns, tied for the third-most such games in the Super Bowl era. The only players with more than four games of 120-3 are Jerry Rice (nine) and Randy Moss (seven).
3) C.J. Stroud has quietly had a historic start to his NFL career
The Texans' rookie quarterback threw for another 306 yards in Houston's Week 4 win over the Steelers.
Stroud has totaled 1,212 yards through the air in his young career, the second-most in a player’s first four games in NFL history -- trailing only Cam Newton’s 1,386 yards in 2011.
Possibly more impressive, Stroud has yet to throw an interception. He is the only player in NFL history with at least 1,200 passing yards and zero interceptions in his first four games.
4) Anthony Richardson passes Colts Hall of Famer for most rushing TDs in three games played
Richardson ran in a touchdown and threw for two more in the Colts' overtime loss to the Rams, bringing his career total to four rushing touchdowns in just three games played.
Four rushing touchdowns are the most in a player’s first three career games in Colts history, passing Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk’s total from 1994 (three).
At just 21 years and 132 days old, Richardson became the youngest player in the Super Bowl era with multiple passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown in the same game.
5) Khalil Mack puts on show with six sacks in Chargers win
Raiders rookie quarterback Aidan O'Connell made his NFL debut and was greeted by a Mack sack attack.
The 2016 Associated Press NFL Defensive Player of the Year had six sacks against his former team, just one sack shy of Hall of Famer Derrick Thomas’ all-time record (individual sacks began being recorded in 1982) set in Week 10, 1990 against the Seahawks.
This was Mack’s second career game with at least five sacks (Week 14, 2015 against the Broncos). He and Thomas are the only players with multiple such games in their career.
6) Puka Nacua breaks another record by a Rams rookie
The 2023 fifth-round pick added nine catches, 163 receiving yards and his first NFL touchdown, a game-winner in overtime, to an already impressive résumé in Week 4 against the Colts.
Nacua has 39 receptions, the most in NFL history through four career games. His 501 receiving yards are also the most through four games.
In three of four career games, Nacua has gone over 100 yards, the second player in NFL history to do so (joining Harlon Hill, 1954).
Nacua’s 501 receiving yards are the most by a Rams player in the first four games of a season in the Super Bowl era (yes, more than Cooper Kupp had through four games in 2021). Speaking of Kupp, the Rams star wideout is eligible to be activated off injured reserve this week – meaning the Rams soon could have one of the deadliest wide receiver duos in the league.
7) Christian McCaffrey breaks record held by 49ers legend Jerry Rice
McCaffrey entered Week 4 as the NFL rushing leader (and scrimmage yards leader) and casually added 106 rushing yards, three rushing touchdowns, 71 receiving yards and a receiving touchdown to his total in San Francisco's win over Arizona.
It was McCaffrey’s 13th consecutive game scoring a touchdown (including playoffs), breaking Rice’s franchise record of 12 games and tying the fifth-longest streak since 1950.
McCaffrey is the third player since 1950 with at least 600 scrimmage yards and seven scrimmage touchdowns in the first four games of a season, joining Hall of Famers Emmitt Smith (1995) and Jim Brown (1958 & 1963).
Research shoutouts: Jack Andrade (@RealJackAndrade), Tony Holzman-Escareno (@FrontOfficeNFL), Michelle Magdziuk (@BallBlastEm), Blake Warye (@bwaryeofblake)