NFL Week 4 lessons: 49ers look like the league's best while Kirk Cousins proves he still has it

The 49ers are rolling behind Shanahan's creativity, Cousins is thriving at age 38 and Dallas has an offense capable of overcoming its defensive flaws

Oct 6, 2026 at 6:54 am ET • 7 min read

Starting at the bottom, five teams entered the NFL's fourth week winless. All five lost. Sorry, Chargers, Dolphins, Buccaneers, Titans and Texans.

As for the five teams that entered the week undefeated, only three still have a zero in the loss column. The Bills still have legitimate defensive issues, and the Raiders just barely ran out of gas late against the Chiefs. As for the three still-undefeated teams, a perfect record hardly means they're perfect overall.

• The Chiefs lost their best downfield weapon, Tyquan Thornton, to a gruesome injury (Tyreek Hill time?), and had trouble on defense.
• The Vikings' offense still looks completely out of sorts and has scored one touchdown in the last three weeks.
• The 49ers ...

Well, wait. The 49ers are bucking that trend. They're hardly perfect, but they just continue to look like the league's best team. They've crushed the Rams and the Dolphins, beat a better-than-you-think Cardinals team and just beat the Broncos 24-14.

Last week, I said Brock Purdy is playing as well as he ever has. This week? Let's give a little love to his coach.

1. Kyle Shanahan is at the top of his game

Kyle Shanahan receives a lot of praise for what he does for his quarterbacks. But how about some of his run game concepts?

The 49ers are fifth in rushing success rate this season, up from 21st last year. It's not all Shanahan, of course, but he has done a lot to free up his injury-battered offense. The 49ers are again one of the most motion-heavy teams in the NFL this season, and their 7.3 yards per play with motion is by far the best in the NFL. They used it on the biggest play of the game Sunday against the Broncos.

Shanahan is doing this with no De'Zhaun Stribling, Ricky Pearsall, Demarcus Robinson or Christian Kirk. With such a thin receiver corps, Shanahan is using two-back looks on 49% of his plays -- his highest rate since 2018 -- and using three-receiver looks on a career-low 32% of plays. He's willing to innovate and to adapt.

Then there's the protection: The 49ers haven't allowed a single sack through four games, the first time that's happened since the 2005 Colts, led by Peyton Manning. Add it all together, and you get Shanahan at his best.

2. Kirk Cousins can still play at a high level

The Raiders didn't win as Klint Kubiak pledged they would at halftime, but it's hard to come away from their 30-27 loss to the Chiefs anything but impressed, especially with Kirk Cousins.

The box score stats -- 31 for 52, 365 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, zero sacks -- are strong, and if you take away his desperation end-of-game interception, they look even better. But the best number there is the zero sacks, especially considering he was pressured 21 times!

How rare is that? In the last 10 seasons, this is only the third time a player has been pressured at least 21 times and taken zero sacks. The others? Matthew Stafford vs. the Seahawks last year and Josh Allen vs. Washington in 2021. That's it. Two MVP-level players and ... 38-year-old Kirk Cousins, brought in basically to be a placeholder for No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza.

I mean, who does this guy think he is? Josh Allen?

The fact that we're getting this version of Cousins again is absolutely wild.

Kirk Cousins by team (last three teams)	Vikings (pre-Achilles)	Falcons (post-Achilles)	Raiders (post-Achilles)
EPA/dropback under pressure	-0.26	-0.38	-0.04
Net YPA under pressure	5.2	5.2	6.4
Negative play rate	20.9%	23.2%	14.8%

This looked like Cousins at his best. He was never a bad athlete per se, but he's never been an explosive one, either. Rather, he uses his mobility to avoid negatives. He's smart, he's accurate, and he still has enough arm strength to get the ball into tight windows. He leans on play action. He's kind of Sam Darnold-esque, and Kubiak had terrific success with Darnold last year in Seattle. Give credit to both Cousins and Kubiak, a partnership that has produced results better than anyone could have expected.

3. The Cowboys' offense can bail out a messy defense

This was a great find from Anthony Dabbundo of The Ringer: The Cowboys' offense is averaging 3.39 points per drive, on pace to be the fifth-highest rate since the turn of the century. Only ahead of them are ...

• 2020 Packers (with MVP Aaron Rodgers)
• 2024 Commanders (with OROY Jayden Daniels)
• 2021 Chiefs (with Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce, etc.)
• 2007 Patriots (with 50-touchdown MVP Tom Brady and 23-touchdown Randy Moss)

Sunday's 34-30 win over the Texans showed Dallas' offense can bail out a defense that's a complete mess on the back end.

CeeDee Lamb caught 17 passes for 189 yards and a touchdown against what's supposed to be the best defense in the sport, beating everyone who tried to cover him.

Dallas showed it can be not only explosive -- usually the one spot Houston can get picked on once or twice -- but efficient, too. Nearly 33% of Dallas' plays went for a first down or a touchdown, the third-highest rate the Texans have allowed in the last three seasons.

Dallas is also fourth in red-zone touchdown rate this season, with Javonte Williams (five touchdowns from 3 yards away or closer) pounding the rock there. This offense is cooking with gas.

4. The Zay Flowers breakout has arrived

Zay Flowers was an advanced-stats darling entering the season after posting 2.53 yards per route run in 2025, only behind Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The only problem was that the volume wasn't there. Nacua had 166 targets last year, Smith-Njigba 163. Flowers? 118.

Consider that problem solved. Flowers, freed from the hamstring injury he suffered in Week 1 that kept him out in Week 2 and limited him in Week 3, had eight catches for 118 yards and a touchdown on 10 targets. It would have been an even bigger day if Lamar Jackson hadn't gotten hurt and the weather hadn't been so crummy.

So far this season, Flowers averages a truly preposterous 6.29 yards per route run. For comparison's sake, the highest on record (since 2013) is 3.85 by Tyreek Hill in 2023.

Flowers is lining up in the slot on nearly 60% of his snaps, well up from his previous career rate of about 38%. When he's in the slot, he's averaging 7.61(!) yards per route run. New offensive coordinator Declan Doyle is getting the very best of a superbly talented player.

5. Don't give up on young wide receivers

The 2024 NFL Draft class is best remembered for the quarterbacks: Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye went 1-2-3, and Michael Penix, J.J. McCarthy and Bo Nix all went in the top 12 picks.

But it was also a huge year for wide receivers: Marvin Harrison Jr., Malik Nabers and Rome Odunze in the top 10, Brian Thomas Jr., Xavier Worthy, Ricky Pearsall and Xavier Legette also in the first round, and Keon Coleman and Ladd McConkey as the first two picks of the second round. Like the quarterbacks, there have been some hits, some misses, and some "meh"s.

Week 4, though, wasn't a bad one:

• Coleman had six catches for 116 yards and a touchdown. He's clearly taking a step forward this season, which changes a ton for the Bills' offense.
• Nabers had six catches for 112 yards and a score, by far his best game since returning from injury.
• Odunze had six catches for 94 yards.
• Worthy had four catches for 70 yards, including a 41-yard contested catch.
• Even Harrison and Thomas had touchdown catches.

We often have more tolerance for players at other positions starting slow than we do for wide receiver, probably because so many wide receivers start fast. But patience can be a good thing, and just because a player doesn't necessarily live up to his draft hype doesn't mean he's useless.

Coleman's a good example of that first point. He's a huge wide receiver and a big-time athlete. He didn't even focus on football full-time until his sophomore year of college; he played basketball and football at Michigan State in 2021-22. He was always going to be a raw prospect, and some early-career mishaps -- missing meetings, late for practice -- didn't help his development.

Sunday, though, he was excellent in his biggest role of the season, putting his absurd downfield traits on display.

Odunze, meanwhile, starred in the exact way he can thrive in Ben Johnson's offense: a big, tough downfield target who can win over the middle and outside. Look at these smooth cuts at the top of his routes.

Again, maybe he never lives up to his top-10 pick status. That doesn't mean he can't be a valuable player.

6. Laterals are coming

If you'll allow for one moment, let's dip a toe into college football, where Harvard beat Colgate on a Hail-Mary-turned-lateral:

That's good stuff.

Turning our attention to our main focus, the NFL, the Texans had the biggest third-down conversion of their season with a hook-and-ladder...

... one week after the 49ers scored a touchdown using one.

This play should be (and probably already is) in every team's playbook, but I'm excited to see if it actually happens more. Teams are always looking for ways to hunt explosive plays. This can be one of them.