It is often said in American professional sports that, “Offence wins games, but defence wins championships.”

There were no championships played in the National Football League (NFL) last weekend, but defence definitely won. A total of seven teams were held to single-digit scores, a situation that only occurs 10.21 per cent of the time, where NFL teams are held to nine-point or less.

There were a number of impressive defensive performances but three in particular stood out above the rest: Khalil Mack had a dominating outing for the Los Angeles Chargers, the Dallas Cowboys were at their blanketing best and the Seattle Seahawks put on a defensive masterclass in the Week 4 closer on Monday night.

There are great performances, then there are days like what Mack had on Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders, who incidentally drafted him with the fifth overall pick in 2014 when they were in Los Angeles.

The linebacker had a notable afternoon, registering a single-game franchise record six sacks (two of which resulted in fumbles), on a day when the Chargers totalled seven as a team. If that wasn’t impressive enough, three of those sacks occurred in less than five minutes to start the third quarter.

Mack joined Derrick Thomas as the only other player in NFL history with multiple games of at least five sacks and fell one short of the single-game record of seven sacks, recorded by Thomas in 1990, while playing for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Chargers’ quarterback (QB) Justin Herbert and the offence were held to just 85 yards and zero points in the second half, but the defence was at the ready to pick up the slack, forcing three turnovers while also holding the Raiders to just 1-of-11 on third-down conversions.

With the 24-17 win, the Chargers head into a Week 5 bye with a 2-2 record and return to action in Week 6 against the Dallas Cowboys for Monday Night Football.

Speaking of the Cowboys, their top-ranked defence continues to carry a sputtering offence that has failed to find any rhythm in the first four games, and they came out in full force last Sunday afternoon when the New England Patriots visited AT&T Stadium. The Dallas defence obliterated the Patriots offence in a 38-3 mauling that was worse to watch than the score line reflects and handed Bill Belichick his worst defeat in his tenure in New England.

After three takeaways (two interceptions and a forced fumble) turned into two defensive touchdowns — an 11-yard fumble return score by linebacker Leighton Vander Esch and a 54-yard interception return touchdown by cornerback DaRon Bland — Patriots QB Mac Jones was pulled (with 3:41 remaining in the third quarter), following the worst performance of this three-year NFL career, in favour of Bailey Zappe, but it was all over by then.

It was a great rebound game for Dallas, after losing miserably the previous week to the Arizona Cardinals, but they visit one of the two undefeated teams in the league this Sunday night as JustBet underdogs, and the outlook is not in their favour.

The San Francisco 49ers played a near perfect offensive game last Sunday against the Cardinals and that was with George Kittle and Deebo Samuel combining for just one catch. The 49ers had nearly 400 yards of offence in a comfortable 35-16 win, with QB Brock Purdy completing 20 of 21 passes for 283 yards and one touchdown (also rushing for one).

Christian McCaffrey (177 total yards and four touchdowns) and Brandon Aiyuk (six catches on six targets for 148 yards) were almost flawless in a game where the 49ers had the ball six times and five of those possessions ended with a touchdown.

San Francisco will put their 4-0 record up against Dallas (3-1) in their first prime time meeting since 1990 and will make every effort to emerge unscathed. The 49ers have ended the Cowboys’ season over the past two years with wins in the wild-card and divisional round of the play-offs, and while this is not the post-season, this is the must-see game of the week. These are the top-two defences in the league, and it will come down to which offence can prevail.

Kittle and Samuel had a quiet afternoon last Sunday, but McCaffrey is making a statement and possibly laying early claim to the Most Valuable Player trophy, an award last won by a non-QB in 2012 (Adrian Peterson). McCaffrey is currently leading the league in all rushing statistics — including yards and touchdowns — and could be the difference-maker on Sunday. The nod must go to the 49ers, but this may be the week when Dallas finds some needed offence — watch this one.

The Seattle defence put on a defensive clinic last Monday in New York against the Giants that probably put them on the NYPD’s most wanted list. The defence registered 11 sacks and three takeaways and, coupled with 14 QB hits and 10 tackles for loss, had Giants QB Daniel Jones running scared all night. Devon Witherspoon was particularly outstanding with two sacks and a second half, 97-yard pick six. The visitors had four different players with at least two sacks, which is a first in franchise history, in the 24-3, runaway victory.

The Seahawks are 3-1 with a multitude of injuries in only the first few weeks of the season. They played without seven starters in their Week 3 win over the Carolina Panthers and were missing four starters heading into Monday night’s game, then lost three more during the contest, all while shutting down the New York offence. Thankfully, they have a bye this week and could see some starters return for their Week 6 game against the underperforming Cincinnati Bengals.

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Super Bowl LVIII Champion

TeamOdds

San Francisco 49ers6.20

Kansas City Chiefs6.80

Philadelphia Eagles7.80

Buffalo Bills8.00

Dallas Cowboys9.80

Miami Dolphins13.00

Baltimore Ravens15.00

Detroit Lions19.00

Los Angeles Chargers28.00

Jacksonville Jaguars30.00

*Only Top 10 odds shown (see website for full list)

Note: Odds are subject to change