With seven weeks of actual football in the books for the 2023 NFL season, it’s time for Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire, and Kyle Madson of Niners Wire, to come to the table with their own unique brand of analysis in “4-Down Territory.”
This week, the guys discuss these four downs:
- Does the NFL even care how bad officiating is right now?
- Which NFL trade should happen before the October 31 deadline?
- Could a defensive player win NFL MVP this season?
- And of course, our Worst of the Week!
You can watch this week’s “4-Down Territory” right here:
You can also listen and subscribe to the “4-Down Territory” podcast on Spotify…
…and on Apple Podcasts.
1. Does the NFL even care about the current state of officiating?
We are at a point in the NFL where officiating needs an intervention. One week after John Hussey and his crew made an absolute mockery of the Browns-49ers game, we now have Brad Allen and his crew calling 10 non-offsetting penalties on the Dolphins and none on the Eagles. The two offsetting penalties called on the Eagles were an offside call in which Allen’s crew got it completely wrong, and an unnecessary roughness call on Dolphins offensive tackle Austin Jackson in which Eagles defensive lineman Jalen Carter openly flopped, and admitted to flopping after the game.
More and more, it’s not just bad officiating – we have incorrect calls that are affecting the outcomes of games. There was the two late defensive penalties against the Colts versus the Browns that set up Cleveland’s game-winning touchdown, and the bad spot in Steelers-Rams that allowed Pittsburgh to close it out when the ball should have gone to the Rams on downs.
Assuming the NFL even cares about this, how does the league fix it?
Doug: I’m not sure the NFL cares. Hussey should have been suspended after getting that many calls wrong, but there he was, officiating the mess of a game between the Giants and Commanders. Maybe that was his punishment. Hussey didn’t have to do a pool report. As far as we know, he was not held accountable at all. Maybe the difference with Allen’s crew is that it was so one-sided, and that’s where the league’s integrity comes into question, with angry Dolphins fans insisting that the NFL has it in the tank for the Eagles.
I’m not saying that Allen is taking the points. There’s no reason to assume that refs are on the take. But the lack of accountability creates a hive of incompetence that perpetuates itself. Every referee should make him or herself available to the media after every game. Walt Anderson, the NFL’s VP of Officiating, should do conference calls with football media in-season to explain calls that happen every week. Fines and suspensions should happen for poor performance, and they should be made public.
But honestly, I start to wonder if the NFL is going on the “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” ethos. All this horrible officiating creates massive fan and analyst involvement on social media, and maybe that’s acceptable. I will also say that when the league is suspending players for the slightest hint of violation of the league’s gambling policies as the league gets more and more into bed with betting services, it would behoove the league to avoid this stuff getting too out of hand.
Kyle: It feels like we do this every year where there’s a week or two where the officiating becomes a talking point. This year feels different though because it’s not a specific type of penalty or a couple egregious calls. It’s just a cornucopia of ineptitude that leads us to talk about it as a whole on this show. Unfortunately it doesn’t feel like the league will be inclined to do anything about it. The officials will be a talking point through Monday night and then we’ll move on to next week.
I’m not even saying it’s the officials’ fault, which is maybe the most annoying part. There’s a pretty easy fix here and it’s to make virtually everything reviewable by an additional ref who is watching on a monitor and can quickly assess a replay in slow motion before relaying the call to the officials. It would take less time than a huddle up and discussion between the on-field officials that may or may not result in the right call being made. Football is too fast to legislate correctly in real time. The league needs to fork over the cash to hire an extra official per game to watch on a monitor and have direct access to the officials on the field. Just doing that would clear up a lot of the problems.
2. Which NFL trade should happen before the October 31 deadline?
We’re getting closer and closer to the October 31 trade deadline, and while there will be trades upcoming, which move would you like to see if you could become the NFL’s Personnel Czar, and whichever trade you would like to see could be automatically stamped to go?
Doug: Kirk Cousins to either the Browns or the Jets. These teams each have awesome defenses, good receivers, good rushing attacks, and everything else you need but a credible quarterback. We know that Cousins won’t be in Minnesota next year, and while Cousins isn’t the be-all end-all quarterback, he’d be a far better option than either Zach Wilson or Deshaun Watson. I think that both of these teams have constructed everything else very well, and they could both miss the playoffs because the most important position in sports isn’t covered. As a person who loves great defense, and would like to see it rewarded, I need these two teams in the playoffs.
Kyle: The Cousins one is a great answer. I’d like to see what Danielle Hunter looks like in Seattle. They’re only a game back of the 49ers and a real life pass rusher might put their defense in position to actually make a run this year. Maybe Hunter struggles without the benefit of a blitz-heavy Brian Flores scheme, but I’m inclined to think he’d be a pretty sizable upgrade on a Seahawks team that isn’t far away from being really hard to beat.
3. Could a defensive player win NFL Most Valuable Player this season?
The Browns’ defense was more vulnerable against Gardner Minshew and the Colts than it had been all season long in Cleveland’s eventual 39-38 win, but Myles Garrett was his usual self – a one-man wrecking crew. He had two strip-sacks, blocked a field goal by jumping over Indianapolis’ line, and he became the first player to record two-or-more sacks, two-or-more forced fumbles and a field goal block in the same game since 2000.
Two defensive players have won the NFL Most Valuable Player award – Alan Page of the Vikings in 1971, and Lawrence Taylor of the Giants in 1986. Could Garrett make it a third, because it’s hard to say that anybody in the league is playing at a higher level right now?
Doug: Right now, I’d put Garrett in the mix for MVP. I’m not sure how that would play out at the end of the season when the votes actually happen, but it’s possible. For that to happen, Garrett will have to play at this level all season, and I don’t think that’s an issue. The man is from another planet. You also need an unsure season from all the usual suspects – there can’t be a quarterback or a running back who’s just dominating, and so far this season, I don’t think there’s a That Guy to run away with it. I might also put T.J. Watt in this conversation, as well.
Kyle: I’m with you for sure. The Browns would need to do something historic defensively to get him there though. The path is like, Cleveland wins 13 games with Deshaun Watson playing horribly and PJ Walker doing whatever it is he does (quietly 5-3 as a starting QB, FYI!). In that event it’d be the Browns defense leading the way, and from there Garrett would need 20-plus sacks and a bunch of forced turnovers to really get into the MVP discussion at season’s end.
The award is just too QB-centric now and the league is so shifted toward offense that the best teams (where the player pool is ultimately from) are almost always going to be offensively driven clubs. From there the QBs emerge as the top contenders and voila — another signal caller wins the award for the 11th consecutive year. Given how Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson all looked in Week 7 — they’ll be in that mix before Garrett.
4. What's your NFL's Worst of the Week for Week 7 (Non-officiating division)?
What’s your Worst of the Week that had nothing to do with officiating?
Doug: Desmond Ridder’s three fumbles against the Buccaneers in a 16-13 win. Per NFL Research, the Falcons became the first team to lose three fumbles in the red zone since the 2004 Cardinals, which tells you what a “remarkable” feat this was. Ridder fumbled at the Tampa Bay 20-yard line, the Tampa Bay one-yard line, and the Tampa Bay one-inch line, and the only reason this didn’t lose Atlanta the game was that the Buccaneers seemed similarly interested in fumbling, and did nothing to capitalize on Ridder’s mistakes – they got no points on any of those turnovers, which was equally remarkable.
Kyle: The Raiders not only starting Brian Hoyer but also losing to the pride of Division II Shepherd University’s Tyson Bagent — an undrafted rookie. This was a mess — a season-ending type of loss that gets a head coach fired. It was an uninspired defensive effort combined with a dreadful offensive performance that only Hoyer can author. The Raiders spent a fourth-round pick on Aidan O’Connell, started him once the first time Jimmy Garoppolo got hurt, and then chose not to go back to him when Garoppolo got hurt again. Instead they went with a QB who literally hasn’t won a start since Oct. 2, 2016. That’s more than seven years!
O’Connell had just turned 18 years old! Hoyer rewarded his coaching staff’s confidence by throwing two interceptions and no touchdowns to help gift wrap Bagent and the Bears a W and undoing all the good they’d done with their consecutive wins over the Packers and Patriots. Gross.
