Dallas Cowboys

Scout's Eye: Falcons roll, Jaguars survive and Cowboys prove it

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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With a quarter of the NFL season behind us, NFL insider and former scout Matt Williamson gives us his thoughts on some pressing topics.

We are now at the quarter point of the regular season. It is amazing that is has gone by so fast, but the NFL landscape is becoming more clear. Below are several observations from Week 4.

Falcons soar, Panthers plummet in Georgia Dome

In the first three weeks of the season, Atlanta’s offense was dominant. But it was dominant against weak defenses. Against the Panthers in Week 4, this unit was just as dominant against what we all consider a quality foe. This is a super impressive statement by the Falcons, especially against the division favorite Carolina. It is fair to really question where the Panthers are overall, but specifically in their secondary and their edge pass-rush, but let’s not take anything away from Atlanta.

Matt Ryan has been terrific all season long and is clearly far more comfortable in this offense in his second season. It is really showing up for Ryan in the red zone, which was a huge area of concern in 2015. He was ultra-impressive leading long drive after long drive, including three over 90 yards, in this critical victory and also attacked deep downfield with great success.

Ryan also carved the Panthers up when they chose to blitz. Of course Julio Jones is a great player-that isn’t late breaking news. And it was easy to see that greatness against Carolina’s overmatched young cornerbacks and it was Bene Benwikere that often was abused by Jones. But unlike last year, Jones isn’t the only weapon now for Ryan, who distributed the ball to a whopping nine different receivers on Sunday and his pass catchers were very reliable and sure handed.

Devonte Freeman was once again a difference maker and the Falcons running game is among the league’s best. But it is really the offensive line that really needs praised. One of the lightest units in the league, this is an excellent movement-based unit that fits this system extremely well. The offensive tackle play was quite good a year ago and is even better now, but it has been the addition of Alex Mack in the middle that has put this group over the top.

Derek Anderson came in for Cam Newton (concussion) late in the game and made this contest very interesting (and no one said Atlanta is close to being good enough on defense), but the day belonged to Jones and the Falcons offense. No offense in the history of the NFL has more combined points (Points for and points against) through four games than Atlanta. Expect a lot more fun high-scoring games from this crew.

Meanwhile, the injuries are starting to really pile up for Carolina and they massively failed their first test against an upper tier quarterback after facing Trevor Siemian, Blaine Gabbert and Sam Bradford in their first three games.

Jacksonville saves season with victory

This was a huge win for the Jaguars. It is especially important because it not only got them their first win of the season, but it also was a divisional win in a division that looks to be clustered with mediocre teams. By beating Indianapolis, the Jaguars are not out of the AFC South race. While this team clearly needs a lot of work and lets not imply that all of a sudden that Jacksonville is a contender, there were two major areas of improvement in this game in London. Jacksonville has struggled mightily to run the football and rush the passer.

The Colts run defense is far from formidable and their pass protection struggles are well documented, but nonetheless, Jacksonville deserves some credit in these capacities as well even though they were very heavily penalized in this game. T.J. Yeldon looked particularly good with smooth gliding strides and good acceleration and power. This was by far the best Jacksonville’s offensive line has played so far this season.

Yeldon finished the day with 117 total yards and Jacksonville sacked Andrew Luck six times and pressured him far more often, often by Malik Jackson. The recent play of rookie Yannick Ngakoue is also highly encouraging. Maybe even more encouraging for Jacksonville is that their schedule is very favorable going forward. They still could make noise in the AFC South.

Cowboys prove mettle in comeback win

This was a highly professional win for Dallas. They went to San Francisco on a business trip and just took care of the business at hand. Lets just think about this for a minute. Dallas was missing two starting offensive linemen, including the best lineman in football in Tyron Smith. On top of that, the Cowboys were without Dez Bryant, leaving the receiving corps extremely bare.

With a well below-average defense that can’t rush the passer, that was asking an awful lot from Dak Prescott. Plus, San Francisco has shown that they are a much better team at home than they are on the road.

Without Bryant in the game, San Francisco was able to dedicate extra coverage to Cole Beasley. And while Prescott has been very impressive thus far, he has yet to show that he is a deep accurate passer and a very high percentage of his throws have been short, which of course is by design and good coaching. The 49ers game planned to take away space in those short zones. On offense, San Francisco ran zone read an extremely high percentage of the time. Blaine Gabbert only threw the ball 23 times.

After leading this game 14-0 at one point, the 49ers just couldn’t keep it up against a superior opponent that played their style of game and the Cowboys didn’t turn the ball over once, which is critical. The reality is that this is the type of games that Dallas will be involved in when Prescott is at quarterback and if they can more or less hold serve until Tony Romo returns, their offense could go from efficient to excellent.

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