The fourth week of the NFL season got underway on Thursday night with the San Francisco 49ers and the St. Louis Rams playing and now the rest of the games will go down on Sunday and Monday and there are plenty of intriguing matchups to look at, especially in the early schedule on Sunday afternoon.
The Ravens and the Bills will be playing in Buffalo and Baltimore comes in after a nice win over the Houston Texans, while the Bills are coming off of a loss to the Jets. The Bills will be starting a rookie in EJ Manuel, while Joe Flacco will lead the attack for the Ravens. Flacco has been solid through three games this season, going for over 700 yards and three touchdowns and the team should get a boost from Ray Rice, who will be back after missing time last week.
Rice was dealing with a hip injury and he has under 100 yards this season through two games, leaving Bernard Pierce to lead the rushing attack to the frustration of fantasy owners. Pierce has 144 yards in two games with two touchdowns and the Bills understand what that means, as their starter CJ Spiller has been limited, while Fred Jackson is leading the team with 169 yards rushing with one touchdown.
The Bengals and the Browns could be a surprising matchup after Cleveland won last week against the Vikings, while Cincinnati needed to make a comeback to defeat the Green Bay Packers. Brandon Weeden will be out again, leaving Brian Hoyer to start for the Browns and he passed for three touchdowns and looked solid last week, giving some hope to Cleveland fans.
The Browns traded away running back Trent Richardson to the Colts before last week and now the team will use Willis McGahee as their starter after signing him as a free agent. The return of Josh Gordon helped the Browns offense and he made 10 catches for over 100 yards last week, while Jordan Cameron has been a fantasy stud, making 10 catches for over 250 yards and four scores on the season. The Browns offense looked much better last week, but it was against a weak Vikings team and now they will play against a tougher Bengals unit on Sunday.
The bears and the Lions are playing a divisional matchup in Detroit on Sunday and this could be a huge game come later in the season, as Chicago is already 3-0 and the Lions are 2-1. The division games will be key in the NFC north this season and the Bears are coming off an impressive victory in the night game last week.
Jay Cutler has barely been sacked this season after leading the league through three games last year and part of that has to do with the addition of Marc Trestman as head coach, as his new offense has put Cutler in some great spots and his use of running back Matt Forte has helped open things up as well. Forte has over 200 yards rushing and has been a factor in the passing game as well, while Brandon Marshall has continued his great stretch from last season, making 20 catches for 269 yards and two scores.
The game will have a nice battle between Marshall and Calvin Johnson, two of the best receivers in the league and Stafford will need to be on his game, as second receiver Nate Burleson will be out with a broken arm. The Lions have been solid on offense and with Reggie Bush returning, they should have a consistent attack.
Game winners: Detroit Lions, New York Giants over Chiefs, Bengals win over Bears and Ravens win over Bills.
