Week 4 of the 2021 NFL season is already here. Through three games, trends are starting to form -- for better or for worse. This week's edition of "Thursday Night Football" features two teams on opposite ends of the spectrum facing off in primetime.The 2-1 are surprisingly occupying first place in the AFC North, albeit by virtue of a tiebreaker. The , meanwhile, are 0-3, have the league's third-worst point differential, and are only kept out of last place in the AFC South by virtue of, again, a tiebreaker.These two teams squaring off means we get a look at the most recent two No. 1 overall draft picks, as and take the field for their respective sides. Let's break down the matchup.Date:Thursday, Sept. 30|Time:8:20 p.m. ETLocation:Paul Brown Stadium (Cincinnati)TV:NFLN|Stream:fuboTV ()Follow:Odds:Bengals -7.5, O/U 45.5 Woo boy is the Urban Meyer era off to a disgustingly bad start. The Jaguars rank Sheldon Richardson Jersey 27th in yards, 23rd in points, and 29th in offensive efficiency (per Football Outsiders' DVOA). Their 5.1 yards-per-play average is a half-yard below the league average mark, and ranks 24th in the NFL. Just 17.1 percent of their drives have resulted in a touchdown or field goal, which ranks second-to-last ahead of only the decrepit offense (11.4 percent), and checks in far below the 38.3 percent leaguewide mark. Their 25.7 percent turnover rate, meanwhile, is the worst in all of football.The Zack Bailey Jersey offensive line in front of Lawrence is struggling to hold up. He's been pre sured on 32.3 percent of his dropbacks, according to TruMedia, despite being blitzed at one of the lowest rates in the league (18.9 percent). He's holding on to the ball and forcing throws downfield because nobody is getting open soon enough after the snap to operate the quick game, and because the team is so often behind the stick that it feels like he needs to make a big play at every opportunity. As a result, he has one of the league's highest average depth of target marks (9.32 air yards per attempt) yet has turned his throws into first downs at the NFL's lowest rate (24.6 percent).The Cincinnati defense is coming off a game in which it held to just 5.5 yards per attempt while picking up four sacks and intercepting two of his pa ses. It's tough to discern how much of that performance is attributable to anything the Bengals did and how much of it is attributable to Roethlisberger being completely washed. It's notable that lit up the Bengals for 351 yards and two scores in Week 1, but it's also notable that both and largely struggled against them in Week 2. It's not a particularly imposing unit, personnel-wise, but it does at least D.J. Wonnum Jersey have the requisite cornerback depth to go up against Jacksonville's wide receiver trio of , , and . and have gotten the majority of the perimeter snaps so far, though may be ready to make his Bengals debut after mi sing the first 19 games of his tenure due to injury. He'd likely slide into Apple's place in the lineup acro s from Awuzie, while maintains his hold on the slot corner role. However, Awuzie is listed as doubtful for the game, so it's po sible Apple remains in the lineup in his place.That'll leave Awuzie and Waynes (or Apple) working mostly against Jones and Chark, while Hilton deals with Shenault. The Jags receivers should be able to win some of those matchups, but that also could have been said about the matchups in each of their first few games, and the pa sing game has struggled regardle s.The run blocking of the group up front has been better than the pa s blocking, but the Jags have been down so often and by so much that they've totaled just 50 rushing attempts between and through three weeks. The Jags seem to have decided that Robinson is simply a better all-around back than Hyde, which, I mean, welcome to the party. Robinson brings versatility as a pa s catcher that could prove valuable against the Cincy linebacker corps that doesn't have much in the way of experience. The Bengals have so far run a surprisingly conservative offense seemingly designed around keeping Joe Burrow from getting killed. They had one of the league's highest pa s rates over expectation while Burrow was healthy last year, and that has been reversed this season as they rank in the league's bottom five.Burrow threw only 18 pa ses last week against Pittsburgh, though he was notably not sacked -- just the third time in 13 career starts that has been the case for the second-year QB. (The previous two times were against the pa s-rush-deficient in Week 8 of last season and against Washington in Week 11, when he left early due to his season-ending ACL tear.) He'd been sacked five teams in each of the first Whop Philyor Jersey two games this season, giving him a 14.7 percent sack rate that was more than double what it was last season. That number is down to a more manageable but still quite scary 11.8 percent after the sack-free game a week ago. Burrow still has a very strong group of weapons around him, and that's the case regardle s of whether can get back on the field for this game. (Update: He was ruled out on Wednesday.) Rookie wideout has overcome his preseason case of the dropsies to catch 11 pa ses for 220 yards and four touchdowns in the first three games of his career, and he's scored at least once in every game. is doing his usual work in the slot, and is one of the NFL's more underrated No. 4 wideouts, capable of filling in when one of the starters is out of the lineup. With Chris Herndon Jersey and rookie coming out of the backfield, Burrow also has solid checkdown options available to him.The Jags have been thrown on by every opponent so far, allowing , , and to scorch them to the tune of 75 of 101 for 907 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception. (They also allowed 60 yards rushing and another touchdown on the ground.) They have been far better against the run (3.4 yards per carry allowed), so if there were ever a time for the Bengals to begin putting more on Burrow's plate, this would seemingly be it. They might even be able to get away from the quick-game-only stuff because Jacksonville has not gotten much in the way of pre sure on opposing QBs, in addition to the i sues they've had in the secondary. Prediction: Bengals 27, Jaguars 17
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