Every week in “4-Down Territory,” Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar and Luke Easterling of Bucs Wire and Draft Wire go over the things you need to know about, and the things you need to watch, in the NFL right now. With Week 15 of the 2022 NFL season in the books, there was a lot to cover!
This week, Doug and Luke discuss:
- 00:00 – How should the NFL solve the officiating blunders?
- 06:00 – What is the dumbest play you’ve ever seen at any level of football?
- 10:02 – Is Jalen Hurts a system quarterback and easily replaceable?
- 15:00 – Is there anything about this win that makes you believe more in the now 11-3 Vikings?
You can watch this week’s episode of “4-Down Territory” right here:
Why is modern NFL officiating so consistently inconsistent?
Coming into Monday night’s game between the Rams and the Packers, there have been 101 games this season decided by a touchdown or less. That’s the most in NFL history through the first 15 games of a season. So, the little things matter more than ever, and it seems that officiating is not only worse than ever, but that it’s deciding games more than ever. This was the case in the Derek Carr to Keelan Cole touchdown pass that wasn’t for the Raiders over the Patriots, and that was the case in the obvious pass interference on Darnay Holmes against Curtis Samuel that put the game away for the Giants over the Commanders. It seems that every week, there are multiple officiating blunders that are glaringly obvious, they’re affecting the results, and things aren’t getting any better. How should the NFL solve this?
Doug: One thing that stands out to me is that, because there have been so many officiating mistakes, there are also more pool reports after games in which one reporter is chosen to speak to the referee after a game. Half the time, the referee doesn’t even talk – it’s Walt Anderson, the NFL’s VP of Officiating, who takes the questions either by himself or in conjunction with the referee. Why can’t the referees explain themselves? Why do they need Anderson’s help? And why aren’t those interviews put on video and on the internet like all coach and player interviews? Why don’t the referees hold post-game pressers?
Beyond that, I think the NFL needs to make officiating grades public. We now have metrics for just about anything. If you want to know which quarterback is the NFL’s best in trips right in the fourth quarter against six or more pass rushers and Cover-1, I can pull that up for you in 30 seconds. (It’s Jared Goff, by the way). Officials need to be made publicly accountable for their performances. The NFL grades officials after every game – or, at least the NFL says it does, though you have to wonder based on some Super Bowl assignments.
There are two things Bill Belichick has talked about for years – making everything reviewable (not more reviews, but simply making everything reviewable), and using technology to take as much as possible out of the officials’ hands. It’s beyond stupid that the league is still basing whether a guy is in bounds, or whether he made a first down, based on the eye test. There’s tracking technology to an extreme degree. Let’s use that to make officiating more accurate, and for the NFL to be less dependent on its officials.
Luke: My family and I were just joking yesterday about the fact that it’s 2022, and with all the technology we have available, we’re still letting a side judge who’s 30 yards away mark the spot of the ball with his foot. The fact that so much weight hangs on whether or not that side judge is a size 9 regular or wide is ridiculous. Everything being reviewable should be another easy starting point, and having some kind of way to penalize officials who blow the whistle too early and take away huge turnovers that should have been obvious calls wouldn’t hurt. The league has more resources available to them than ever before, but the officiating keeps getting worse. It’s unacceptable.
What is the dumbest play you've ever seen?
Jakobi Meyers’ lateral attempt to Mac Jones, which was intercepted by Chandler Jones and returned for a 48-yard touchdown to push the Raiders over the Patriots at the end of their game, may very well have been the dumbest play in the history of professional football. It’s certainly in the running, as all the Patriots had to do was to run the clock out and head to overtime. Other than this particular instance of situational brain-cramp, what is the dumbest play you’ve ever seen at any level of football?
Doug: I still have to go with a certain skinny slant thrown by Russell Wilson to Ricardo Lockette in Super Bowl XLIX. The Patriots had subbed from base to nickel before that play. They had practiced it on defense during the week. This was back when the Patriots had more than a handful of good coaches, so they had this on lock. The Seahawks had no receivers on the field over six feet tall in a red zone situation. And they had Marshawn Freaking Lynch. Given the long-term ramifications of that interception, it might be the most meaningful play in NFL history in a profoundly negative sense. That said, this play on Sunday was pretty dumb.
Luke: I think that’s the easy answer, for sure. I’ll note a few others, though. Scott Mitchell spiking the ball on 4th down to seal a wild-card loss for the Lions on the road against the Bucs back in ‘97 comes to mind. Jim Marshall famously running the wrong way for a safety that he thought was a touchdown was on every NFL Films VHS tape I had growing up. In terms of the overall situation and impact, though, it’s the Hawks not just handing the ball to Money Lynch with the Lombardi on the line.
Why do people insist that Jalen Hurts is a 'system quarterback?'
Everybody from Micah Parsons of the Dallas Cowboys to Chris Simms of NBC Sports has decided to jump on the narrative that Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is a system quarterback. Now, let’s get this out of the way: Every quarterback is a system quarterback. But what Parsons and Simms mean is that Hurts is overly reliant on the Eagles’ offense, and that he’s easily replaceable. Where do you stand on that notion?
Doug: The thing that is so wrong about Hurts being portrayed as a system quarterback is that the Eagles have created their current offensive system specifically for his skill set. It’s as if you were to call Lamar Jackson a system quarterback. Hurts has not only completed 67.3% of his passes for 8.2 yards per attempt, 22 touchdowns, and five interceptions – he’s also run 156 times for 747 yards and 13 touchdowns. He is not a system quarterback – he is the system. Simms, who I know and respect, said that with this offensive line, receivers, and coaches, Gardner Minshew could do pretty much the same stuff that Hurts is doing. I am the president of the Gardner Minshew fan club, and I’m even calling malarkey on that. Yes, Hurts is in an ideal situation. But he is also making the absolute most of his ideal situation, and that’s what great quarterbacks do.
Luke: This is such a comical narrative, especially when you consider that last year, there were plenty of folks talking about how Hurts just needed more weapons, and now they’re punishing him for the fact that he has them. We’ve seen plenty of playmakers held back by bad QB play over the years. I don’t know how you can watch this team play and come away thinking that Hurts isn’t the engine that drives their success on offense. He’s one of the most dynamic, exciting players in the league, and those guys don’t just appear out of thin air. He was that guy at Alabama, he was that guy at Oklahoma, and he’s that guy in Philly.
Do we believe in the Vikings after the greatest comeback in NFL history?
We spoke just last week about how hard it was to take the Vikings seriously despite their 10-3 record due to their negative point differential, their historically bad defense,and their ridiculous luck (10-0) in one-score games. Well, their last one-score game came on Saturday, when they engineered the greatest comeback in NFL history to beat the Colts, 39-36 in overtime. Is there anything about this win that makes you believe more in the now 11-3 Vikings?
Doug: I’m still not sure. In the first half of this game, the Vikings looked a lot like the Vikings we were talking about last week. Actually they looked worse. They allowed 209 yards and gained 82. Their first half possessions ended thusly: Blocked punt, fumble, downs, downs, punt, interception, punt, end of half. The defense was terrible, the offense was way off, and the special teams were atrocious. Yes, they turned it all around in the second half and in overtime, but they did so against a Colts team that was busy throwing up all over itself all of a sudden. You level all that out, I think we are where we were with what we can actually see on the field.
Now, there is an intangible element of such a comeback that could carry over – when you do the impossible, and you suddenly believe that everything is possible… well, hey. Maybe it is. It was an amazing game, and kudos to the Vikings for that historic comeback. But I’m still not completely on the bandwagon.
Luke: I do think there might be some magic about this team. It doesn’t make all of their shortcomings disappear, and they won’t get to play against an interim head coach with no previous experience every week, but these are the kinds of things that can galvanize a locker room and make them believe that they can overcome anything. I still think that on paper, there’s a huge gap between the Eagles and the Vikings, but this game proved they should never be counted out.
