Football is a wonderful, thrilling, inspiring game that can lift us to new heights in our lives.
But football is also a weird, inexplicable, at times downright stupid game that may force you to perform Keith Moon-level furniture destruction in your own living room.
So, as much as we at Touchdown Wire endeavor to write about what makes the game great, there are also times when it’s important to point out the dumb plays, boneheaded decisions, and officiating errors that make football all too human.
Folks, it’s time for the Worst of the Week for Week 10 of the 2023 NFL season.
Whatever the Panthers were doing on their final drive.
With 1:40 left in the Carolina Panthers’ eventual 16-13 loss to the Chicago Bears last Thursday, Carolina head coach Frank Reich elected for kicker Eddy Pineiro to try a 59-yard game-tying boot, which didn’t quite get where it needed to go. That was a fourth-and-10 from the Chicago 41-yard line, and it was a bad weather game at Soldier Field, and the Panthers were 3-for-3 on fourth-down conversions in the game, but that was the call, and it prevented the Panthers from tying the game.
Reich said after the fact that he made the decision following a quick consultation with the team’s analytics staff, which will give those anti-analytics folks who don’t actually understand analytics even more ammo than they already have.
“I do feel like, in retrospect, even if I did confirm that the percentages are what they are,” Reich said. “I mean, an outdoor 59-yard field goal is in the 40 percent, 40-ish percentiles. A fourth-and-10 conversion over the last lot of years is about 27 percent. So clearly, the odds are in favor of kicking the field goal.
“But, you know, give [quarterback] Bryce [Young] that moment. In hindsight, the reason is that there was still time enough left on the clock that even if we got the conversion, we still had time to drive down and score. So it’s easy to second-guess yourself. I wish I’d gone the other way. I considered all the options. I went with the statistical play… So I probably wish we’d gone for it on fourth-and-10 even though it’s a low percentage.”
Pineiro had made three of four field goal attempts of 50-plus yards this season before the Bears game, so you can see the logic to a point. But when you’re already 1-7, and you’re probably going to be 1-8 no matter what, why not go YOLO in the moment?
Baily Zappe's fake spike interception.
The New England Patriots have been suffering through what some would call quarterback Mac Jones’ regression all season long. Others (including this observer) might say that quarterbacks, like water, always find their own level, and that’s what Jones has done. Regardless of why and how, the what was abundantly clear in New England’s 10-6 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Germany on Sunday — Jones laid another Brontosaurus egg, completing 15 of 20 passes for 170 yards, five sacks, no touchdowns, a passer rating of 79.2, and this hideous interception
A back-breaking interception from Mac Jones…
🎥 @NFLpic.twitter.com/bSRrWFUzHd
— The Athletic NFL (@TheAthleticNFL) November 12, 2023
Jones was eventually benched in favor of backup Bailey Zappe, who tried the Dan Marino fake spike. This was a dumb idea, as Zappe is no Dan Marino, but it was somewhat emblematic in that the Patriots’ offense seems Straight Outta 1994 these days.
Bailey Zappe fake spike INT is certainly a way to end this football game pic.twitter.com/7D71bIj5CF
— alex (@highlightheaven) November 12, 2023
The Patriots are now 2-8, and they’re fielding by far the worst team of the Bill Belichick era.
Scott Novak's bad call on Kenny Pickett's backward pass.
Rule 8, Section 7, Article 1 of the NFL Rule Book states that “A runner may throw a backward pass at any time. Players of either team may advance after catching a backward pass, or recovering a backward pass after it touches the ground.”
Apparently, referee Scott Novak’s crew didn’t get the memo in Sunday’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers. With 3:34 left in the first half, Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett pretty clearly threw a backward pass to running back Jaylen Warren. The play was ruled an incomplete forward pass, the Packers reviewed it. and the call was upheld.
Broadcaster Charles Davis had a serious problem with that, and Davis was not wrong. Rules analyst and former NFL referee Gene Steratore tried to state a contrary case, but there’s only so much you can gloss over stuff like this.
Charles Davis doesn't have as spirited an argument with Gene Steratore that Cris Collinsowrth had with Terry McAulay, but the CBS analyst let the former head official that he disagrees, "vehemently."
Steratore really taking a stand here: "To me, it was just not enough to… pic.twitter.com/HjfadUy9Ga
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 12, 2023
Steratore then took the time to over-explain the call and the process.
This play in #GBvsPIT is much closer than you think. Here is a little background about how replay reviews work in the NFL. 👀
For many rulings, officials will "piece" together angles to paint the full picture of a play. This eliminates the perception bias that you can have from… pic.twitter.com/l1oD6fMVDn
— Gene Steratore (@GeneSteratore) November 12, 2023
What was it Albert Einstein said? “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
Pretty much everything that happened on Ambry Thomas' fumble recovery.
So… there was a lot going on here.
Not that it mattered in the end, as the San Francisco 49ers completely demolished the Jacksonville Jaguars 34-3 on Sunday, but this play made no sense in about five different directions.
With 5:39 left in the third quarter, 49ers cornerback Ambry Thomas stripped the ball from Jaguars receiver Christian Kirk, and seemed to return the fumble 92 yards for a touchdown.
Before we get into the “seemingly” part, let’s observe the multiple Jaguars players standing around instead of touching Thomas down. That was mistake No. 1.
AMBRY THOMAS FUMBLE RECOVERED FOR A TD WOAH pic.twitter.com/zPo27vDZ3v
— Arye Pulli (@AryePulli) November 12, 2023
Mistake No. 2 was on two 49ers rookies, whose actions negated the touchdown.
Ambry Thomas made (one of) the play(s) of his career, forcing the Christian Kirk fumble. But at least two 49ers rookies, Dee Winters and Ji'Ayir Brown, stormed the field in celebration — an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that nullified Thomas' long TD return
— David Lombardi (@LombardiHimself) November 12, 2023
And this is what that looked like.
Shanahan gonna send himself to the booth for this pic.twitter.com/586kMm8Qac
— Guy Haberman (@GuyHaberman) November 12, 2023
49ers defensive coordinator Steve Wilks decided to move from the booth to the field this week to help his guys, and we’re not saying that it had anything to do with this, but it’s pretty clear that San Francisco needs to hire at least one more “get back” guy.
The New York Giants' historic offensive futility.
In the first half of their 49-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Giants managed just one first down to the Dallas’ 20, 11 net rushing yards to Dallas’ 120, 16 net passing yards to Dallas’ 239, and one yard per play to Dallas’ 7.2. The Giants were 0-for-6 on third-down conversions, which was more of a positive than I thought, because when you’re the 2023 Giants, getting all the way to second down is kinda cool.
In the second half, the Giants managed to put forth a half-presentable effort with 16 first downs, 100 rushing yards, 45 passing yards (well, that’s not very good), and six more o-fers on third down (well, that’s not very good either, but we’re grading on a severe curve here). Brian Daboll’s squad is now in the running for the worst team in the history of DVOA (which currently goes back to 1981), and when Tommy DeVito is your starting quarterback… well brother, there ain’t nowhere to go but down.
I don’t *think* John Mara will fire Brian Daboll, but moments like this might tip the scale slightly in that direction.
If there’s one thing Mara and that organization don’t seem to have much tolerance for, it’s being embarrassed. pic.twitter.com/9rMTWzD3kJ
— Matt Lombardo 🏈 (@MattLombardoNFL) November 12, 2023
Well, that’s as may be, but the Giants’ head coaches between Tom Coughlin and Daboll were Ben McAdoo, Pat Shurmur, and Joe Judge. I would maintain that the Maras are quote comfortable making the kind of decisions in hiring head coaches that are bound to breed embarrassment. It’s just that nobody expected a team coached by Daboll to be at the bottom of that particular list.
Emmanuel Forbes' ejection.
With 10:40 left in the first quarter of Sunday’s game between the Washington Commanders and the Seattle Seahawks, Washington rookie cornerback Emmanuel Forbes was ejected from the game for this helmet-to-helmet hit on an incomplete pass from quarterback Geno Smith to receiver Tyler Lockett.
Emmanuel Forbes has been ejected for this hit on Tyler Lockett. Penalty yes, but an ejection???
Do you agree with this call?#Seahawks #Commanders #NFL
— No Interference (@thenishow) November 12, 2023
Per the 2023 Official Playing Rules of the National Football League, there are multiple reasons for disqualification, and what Forbes did — an incidental helmet-to-helmet hit — does not rise to that level.
- Repeat violation of general appearance.
- Flagrant illegal contact with a player attempting a fair catch.
- Flagrant unnecessary roughness, which includes:
- a player of the receiving team who has gone out of bounds and blocks a kicking team player out of bounds during the kick. If this occurs on a kick from scrimmage, post-possession rules will apply if appropriate;
- running, diving into, or throwing the body against or on a runner whose forward progress has been stopped, who has slid or taken a knee, or who has declared himself down by going to the ground untouched and has made no attempt to advance;
- running, diving into, or throwing the body against or on any player on the ground either before or after the ball is dead;
- throwing the runner to the ground after the ball is dead;
- unnecessarily running into, diving into, or throwing the body against or on a player who (1) is out of the play or (2) should not have reasonably anticipated such contact by an opponent, before or after the ball is dead;
- pulling an opponent off a pile of players in an aggressive or forcible manner; or
- a kicker/punter, who is standing still or fading backward after the ball has been kicked, is out of the play and must not be unnecessarily contacted by the receiving team through the end of the down or until he assumes a distinctly defensive position. However, a kicker/punter is a defenseless player through the conclusion of the down.
There’s also impermissible use of the helmet. Here are the provisions there.
-
It is a foul if a player:
- (a) lowers his head and makes forcible contact with his helmet against an opponent; or
- (b) uses any part of his helmet or facemask to butt or make forcible contact to an opponent’s head or neck area. These provisions do not prohibit incidental contact by the mask or the helmet in the course of a conventional tackle or block on an opponent.
So, either the official on the field, or the crew in New York, had to decide that Forbes’ hit to Lockett was flagrant and not incidental. Forbes appeared to be leading with his shoulder; how he was supposed to change his launch angle with that timing when Lockett flew into his “hit zone” is a mystery.
Referee Alex Kemp, who’s been part of “Worst of the Week” more often than he’d probably like, makes it again after this call.
