USA Today Sports’ Tom Pelissero recaps the biggest takeaways from Sunday’s games.
Awards, observations and a quick review of Week 4 in the NFL….
Studs of the week: Matt Ryan and Julio Jones. Here’s what happens when you decide to put your cornerbacks on an island to cover maybe the most dangerous receiver in football, with a red-hot MVP candidate throwing passes: They eat you alive and make history. The Carolina Panthers discovered this in the worst way on Sunday. Ryan and Jones became the first quarterback and receiver in NFL history to post a 500-yard passing and 300-yard receiving game, respectively, in the same game. Jones, six days after a one-catch outing at New Orleans, caught 12 passes, including one that he took 75 yards to paydirt. Ryan completed 28 of 37 passes for 503 yards, with 4 TDs. Jones is the sixth player to put up a 300-yard game, finishing in striking distance of the single-game record that Flipper Anderson established with a 336-yard game in 1989. Ryan, the 19th passer to crack 500, was maybe one more big strike away from surpassing the NFL record of 554 yards by Norm Van Brocklin that has stood…
