With 17 weeks of actual football in the books for the 2023 NFL season, it’s time once again 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 have some serious questions to answer:
- Can anybody but Lamar Jackson be the NFL Most Valuable Player right now?
- It is time for the NFL to fire referee Brad Allen and his entire crew?
- If you had to take one of last year’s two Super Bowl teams — the Chiefs or the Eagles — which one would you be stuck with?
- And what was your Worst of the Week (non-officiating version)?
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. Can anybody but Lamar Jackson credibly be the NFL Most Valuable Player?
After their 56-19 depantsing of the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, the Baltimore Ravens wrapped up the AFC’s one-seed, and they’re a 13-3 juggernaut that’s won six straight games. That includes wins over the 49ers and Dolphins in consecutive weeks that were about as decisive against two great teams as they could have possibly been. We can argue who’s the NFL’s best team right now, but following his third career game in which he put up the highest possible quarterback rating of 158.3, is there anyone else but Lamar Jackson who can make the case for NFL MVP?
Doug: Nope. He’s the guy. And it’s not close. It wasn’t close before Jackson beat up on the 49ers and the Dolphins over the last two weeks, and it certainly isn’t close now. What makes Jackson so dangerous in the 2023 season is his ability to merge all of his athleticism with a fully developed passing game in ways that has taken his game to the next level. Against the Dolphins last Sunday in that win, Jackson became one of five quarterbacks in NFL history to put up the highest possible passer rating – 158.3 – with at least 15 attempts. The other quarterbacks to do so are Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Kurt Warner, and Ben Roethlisberger. That’s three Hall of Famers, and Roethlisberger is a sure-fire when he’s eligible. Jackson will be 27 years old on January 7. He was the youngest MVP when he won it in 2019, and he’ll be the youngest player to win two MVPs when he does it again at the end of this season.
The one play I think perfectly summarizes the ways in which Jackson is humming is the 35-yard touchdown pass to tight end Isaiah Likely against the Dolphins. It was fourth-and-7, Jackson had pressure on a five-man blitz, he stepped up in the pocket, and he fired a crazy throw that was basically no-look with a sideways arm angle.
There are maybe three other NFL quarterbacks who can make that throw. Jackson is the most important player for his team in the league, and I don’t know what else you need. .
Kyle: There’s not a viable argument for anyone else. He checks every conceivable box. His stats are strong, he passes the eye test with flying colors, he’s elevating the players around him, and he’s the QB of the AFC’s No. 1 seed and perhaps the best team in all of football. With all due respect to Christian McCaffrey, Josh Allen and whoever else is in the conversation, they’re all a tick below Jackson in terms of MVP bonafides.
The Ravens’ 33-19 win over the 49ers offers the best insight into why Jackson is so far ahead of the field. McCaffrey has had a sensational year and certainly belongs in the MVP discussion. However, when Jackson’s Ravens faced McCaffrey’s 49ers, it was Jackson who had a huge game and helped lift his team to a victory when given opportunities by Baltimore’s defense. McCaffrey had a tremendous game in his own right, but it wasn’t nearly effective enough to overcome a great showing from Jackson.
The QB was poised in the pocket, scrambled effectively, and made some big-time throws to carry his team to a win on the road against the No. 1 seed in the NFC. His case was solidified when he put up five TD passes in a 56-19 throttling of the Miami Dolphins to clinch the No. 1 seed in the AFC. Lamar Jackson is the NFL MVP.
2. Does the NFL have to fire referee Brad Allen at this point?
Referee Brad Allen and his crew have been responsible for some really horrid performances this season. Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Allen was put on Double Secret Probation after his crew missed the obvious pass interference call against Packers cornerback Carrington Valentine in the Week 13 Chiefs game, and the ways in which he goofed up the tackle eligible thing in the Lions-Cowboys game on Saturday night is all anybody can talk about now.
Not that it was Allen’s only miss in the game – he also failed to throw a flag after an obvious pass interference on Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis, and he flagged Dallas tight end Peyton Hendershot for tripping Detroit edge-rusher Aidan Hutchinson when it was Hutchinson who was trying to trip Hendershot. Word is that Allen’s crew has been downgraded out of the playoffs, but should more be done? Should the NFL make a more public statement about the state of officiating by firing everybody on that crew when the regular season is over?
Doug: Fire his ass, but they won’t. The NFL is already blaming the Lions. Per longtime Dallas NFL reporter Clarence Hill Jr., the NFL does not plan to change the procedure for players reporting as eligible. The league views the situation as an effort by the Lions to engage in deception and gamesmanship that backfired.
(Note: After we taped the show, it was announced that Allen and his crew will “officiate” Saturday’s prime time game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers, which has serious postseason implications for the Steelers).
Which also tells you that, despite the message that Allen and his crew are under “more scrutiny,” they won’t be punished for any of it. Not that we’d know if they were, because the NFL rarely makes those things public. Beyond Allen’s incompetence, which is beyond debate, I think we now have a situation where the NFL is in bed with so many different gambling partners, they are paralyzed by the need to look aboveboard in all things. That’s why there have been no public statements about the state of officiating. That’s why they’re handing down draconian punishments if an NFL player bets online on a Scrabble tournament. And that’s why the NFL doesn’t want to be seen taking after its officials There is now a desperation to have everything look white, clean, and neat when it really isn’t. I’m not saying that Allen or anybody on his crew are crooked; but they are performing well below the league’s standard, and the league won’t do anything about it for all the wrong reasons.
Kyle: The problem here is all the solutions involve money and the NFL clearly doesn’t feel interested in spending money on improving the officiating problems they have when they could just put out statements that shift blame to players and teams, or downplay the problems altogether.
There are two solutions that would help:
- Fire refs. Or at least demote them to some sort of education system or Football Betterment Program or something where the “non-working” officials can either help themselves improve as officials or help review the overall officiating process to try and make life easier for the on-field officials, which would theoretically lead to better on-field legislation of the sport. Maybe the demotion is to the UFL and the NFL can work with that league to operate as some sort of feeder league for both players and game officials.
- The ‘eye in the sky’ thing needs to happen. Straight up. This wouldn’t necessarily have changed anything in the Lions-Cowboys debacle, but having another ref in the building who is watching the game with access to replays who can quickly buzz down to on-field officials when there’s been a grievous error. This wouldn’t be for ticky tack calls that are letter-of-the-law penalties, but for blatant misses like the call on Hendershot in the it would help for an official not caught up in the heat of being on the field to be able to relay to the lead official that the call was incorrect. It’s a process that wouldn’t add much time to games and would probably be used less often than one might think. The NFL just can’t keep seeing these huge calls go sideways in big games on national TV, and the ‘eye in the sky’ official would help alleviate a lot of those issues.
3. If you had to choose between the Eagles and Chiefs in the 2023 playoffs, who would you get stuck with?
If you had to pick one of the defending Super Bowl teams to make it back to the biggest game – and we would understand you not wanting either one – would you go with the Kansas City Chiefs, or the Philadelphia Eagles?
Doug: I’ll go with the Chiefs, because I have faith in what they’re doing on at least one side of the ball. The Chiefs are now 10-6, and without Steve Spagnuolo’s defense, they’re probably not a .500 team. Spags has kept that weird offense in just about every game, and it imposed its will on the Bengals in last Sunday’s 25-17 win. In Cincinnati’s final drive to try and tie the game, the Chiefs had four sacks of Jake Browning in a five-play stretch that took 50 clock seconds. Three different defenders (Justin Reid, George Karlaftis, Chris Jones) had sacks on four different pass-rush concepts, and there really wasn’t anything the Bengals could do about it. I don’t really see a way out for that offense, but the defense is all in, and that makes the defending Super Bowl champs at least a feisty (if not convincing) postseason opponent.
Kyle: I might just be leaning on my preseason pick, but I think it’s the Eagles. They won’t dominate or win pretty, but they’ve had to win in so many different ways this year that it wouldn’t be a surprise if they’re able to grind out a couple playoff wins – especially if they wind up getting to host a couple postseason games.
This is a bet on Jalen Hurts as a star who can be relied on in big spots, and I’m still going to ride behind that dominant offensive front with Hurts throwing to DeVonta Smith, AJ Brown and Dallas Goedert. That’s a dangerous offense, especially if they get the ground game going with D’Andre Swift. Sure, they’re a mess defensively, but their defensive front is talented enough to take over a game in a big spot and that’s what a lot of this is relying on because it sure as heck isn’t going to be anything the Eagles are doing in the second level or at safety. That defense needs to be perhaps league average for Philly to be dangerous in the playoffs, and I’m willing to bank on that after their Super Bowl run last year.
4. What's your Worst of the Week (non-officiating version)?
What was the worst thing you saw in Week 17 that had nothing to do with officiating?
Doug: Panthers owner David Tepper throwing his drink at Jaguars fans. At some point in the Jaguars’ 26-0 demolition of the Panthers on Sunday, Tepper got all hot and bothered about the state of his team, and threw his drink forward from the owner’s box into a cadre of Jaguars fans. Mind you, he did this at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville and his team is now 2-14, so if he was getting static from the locals, he shouldn’t have been surprised. But this seems to be standard operating procedure for a guy who seems bound and determined to be the NFL’s worst and most mercurial owner since Dan Snyder got himself booted out of the NFL.
Not great: #Panthers owner David Tepper appears to have spilled his drink on a #Jaguars fan during today's frustrating 26-0 loss.
(📽️ @Kahuna_Med)pic.twitter.com/g9rNiBogsThttps://t.co/g9rNiBogsT
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 31, 2023
All Tepper has done in his five years as team owner is to fire three different coaches in-season, preside over one of the worst roster constructions in the league, Now, he’s making his personal oddities public in ways that are repugnant, entitled, and do not represent the Panthers or the NFL in any good way. The Panthers are stuck with Tepper, and they’re going to suffer this upcoming offseason when it comes to hiring a new head coach and offensive coordinator because of it.
Kyle: There are a couple angles from the Lions-Cowboys game that land here for me that have nothing to do with the officials.
First, Mike McCarthy’s clock management after the late interception was abominable. Dallas took over with 2:11 left on the clock. Detroit only had two timeouts. The tripping penalty on Hendershot put them behind the sticks, and I don’t even hate the initial first-down throw to CeeDee Lamb. It was a high-percentage throw that ripped off 11 yards and got the Cowboys quickly into a second-and-14, but more importantly it got them to more manageable field goal range. Then the inexplicable second-down shot play that was nowhere close to being complete saved the Lions a full 40 seconds by not forcing them to use their final timeout. Dallas didn’t get the first down on third-and-14, Detroit stopped the clock, and by the time the dust settled after a 43-yard field goal by the Cowboys, Dallas had used only 24 seconds of game clock and left 1:45 for the Lions to try and tie or win the game.
Second, Dan Campbell and the Lions got hosed. I totally get it, but Campbell continuing to go for two after the penalty was bad. He was clearly on tilt and was hell-bent on going for two and the win even when it no longer made sense to do so. Detroit got screwed by the officials, but they didn’t do themselves any favors by not reeling it back in after that bad execution by the refs. Campbell is a really fun and good football coach, but the benefit of in-game aggressiveness has limits, and we saw those limits at the end of Saturday night’s contest.
Doug: Add in Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn playing his defenders off and soft on that final Lions drive, and it appears that everybody in the stadium had their brains fall out of their heads in the final two minutes.
