4-Down Territory: Big penalties, Mahomes’ GOAT status, Jalen Hurts’ arrival, Eagles redux?
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 the Super Bowl LVII in the books, and the Kansas City Chiefs set as world champs over the Philadelphia Eagles, there was a lot to discuss.
00:00 – Intro
01:20 – Should Carl Cheffers and his crew have called that defensive holding penalty on Eagles cornerback James Bradberry in Super Bowl LVII given the situation?
07:32 – Where do you put Patrick Mahomes in the all-time Quarterback Pantheon at this point?
12:21 – Where does this heroic Super Bowl performance from Jalen Hurts put him among the NFL’s quarterbacks today?
16:50 – Do you think the Eagles can get back to next year’s Super Bowl?
You can watch this week’s Super Bowl Special episode of 4-Down Territory right here:
Should Carl Cheffers' crew have called defensive holding on James Bradberry?
(Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports_
We have to start with the defensive holding penalty on Eagles cornerback James Bradberry with 1:54 left in the game. It was a hold by the letter of the law, and Bradberry admitted it after the game, but should Carl Cheffers and his crew have called that penalty given the situation and what happened next? If there’s no penalty, the Chiefs have to kick the field goal there to go up 38-35, and the Eagles have time to respond. Instead, the Chiefs were able to run the clock down, Harrison Butker kicked the game-winner, and Jalen Hurts had one last desperation throw. This is not how you want a Super Bowl to end.
Doug: With all the talk there’s been – legitimately so – about terrible officiating this season, I find it funny that people are outraged about the call in that situation. I hate the idea that you don’t call a penalty with two minutes left in the Super Bowl that you should call in a Week 18 snorefest between the Falcons and the Bears. If it’s holding, it’s holding, and it was holding. Bradberry admitted after the game that it was holding, and that he thought the refs would let it slide. If you’re going to call that in the season during a game nobody cares about, you have to call it here. I know people hate it, but there’s already so much subjectivity in officiating, and we see where that gets us.
I did not at all enjoy the way the Super Bowl ended, but as much as I’m generally eager to blame officials for such things, this wasn’t on Carl Cheffers and his crew. This was on Bradberry, he admitted it as the stand-up guy he is, and that’s where we should leave it. If you start asking officials to legislate games so that we have more attractive endings, you’re one big step closer to the conspiracy theories so many fans like to speculate about.
Luke: I don’t disagree with any of that, nor does the Eagles defense get to complain about anything after the way they played for most of that game. My only issue is that they called the game a certain way all night long, letting tugs and pulls like that go for 3.9 quarters, only to finally call it with the game on the line in a critical moment that gave us a flat ending to a great game.
It’s like a pitcher who spent 8 innings watching the ump call a strike in a particular spot just off the plate, but when he throws it again in the bottom of the night, all of a sudden it’s a ball. Bradberry probably hoped they’d let it go because they had been letting it go all night long, and at the last moment, they changed the strike zone. It’s not the officials’ job to give us a better ending, but if they had called the game the same way for four full quarters, we might have gotten one.
Patrick Mahomes' GOAT path.
(Syndication: Arizona Republic)
With all the amazing things he’s done in his NFL career, Patrick Mahomes did not play well in his first two Super Bowls. He completed 20 of 31 passes for 219 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions against the 49ers in Kansas City’s Super Bowl LIV win over the 49ers, and he completed 26 of 49 passes for 270 yards, no touchdowns, and two interceptions in Kansas City’s Super Bowl LIV loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV. In this game, he completed 21 of 27 passes for 182 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions.
He’s a two-time Super Bowl MVP and a two-time NFL MVP, and he’s 27 years old. He won’t turn 28 until September 17, when the 2023 season will already be underway. Travis Kelce said after the game that Mahomes is already the greatest quarterback of all time. That might be a bit of a stretch, but where do you put Mahomes in the all-time Pantheon at this point, and do you see a path to greatest of all time?
Doug: The most insane overall stat from this Super Bowl was Mahomes’ numbers before and after the first-half ankle injury. He completed eight of 13 passes for 89 yards and a touchdown before, and he completed 13 of 14 passes for 93 yards and two touchdowns after. He also ran for 11 yards before the injury, and 33 yards after, including that amazing 26-yard run late in the fourth quarter that helped set up the game-winner. He’s done most of the stuff he’s done in the postseason with that same ankle injury, and there just doesn’t seem to be anything that will stop him. I would say that he’s a top-three quarterback in NFL history right now, and at this rate, he could retire as the goat. This guy has never not been to a conference championship game as an NFL starter. He’s never had a road playoff game that wasn’t a Super Bowl.
And unlike Tom Brady and a lot of other young quarterbacks who eventually got the hang of it at an all-time level, Mahomes was asked to be The Guy from the first season he was the starter, which was his second NFL season. He responded by throwing 50 freaking touchdown passes in the 2018 regular season, which is just preposterous. Brady threw 46 touchdown passes combined in his first two regular seasons. Mahomes is unquestionably setting the bar at a pace and level we’ve never seen before.
Oh. And he did this all without Tyreek Hill, in a radically modified passing game, and with a run game that was MIA in the first half of the season. Patrick Mahomes is an alien, and should always be regarded as such.
Luke: I think he’s easily the most talented quarterback of all time, and well on his way to being one of the most accomplished. He’s got every physical and mental and intangible trait you could possibly want in a quarterback, to a level we’ve never seen before. I think there are plenty of variables to the GOAT conversation, so it just depends on how you value and weigh certain criteria.
At the end of the day, I still think the overall debate is kinda like the basketball GOAT debate, in that I don’t particularly care whether you’re Team Jordan or Team Lebron or Team Kobe or whatever. I’m just glad I get to watch greatness unfold in real time, and Mahomes is absolutely the next generation of greatness at the position. That’s enough for me.
Jalen Hurts, and winning in a loss.
(Syndication: Arizona Republic)
In Super Bowl V, Dallas Cowboys linebacker Chuck Howley became the only player from a losing team to be named Super Bowl MVP. Is there a credible argument for Jalen Hurts to have been named the MVP of this game, and where does this performance from Hurts put him among the NFL’s quarterbacks today?
Doug: Were it not for the fumble that Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton returned for a touchdown, I think there’s an absolutely legitimate case for Hurts to be the MVP. Of course, were it not for that fumble, the Eagles might have won the game and Hurts is the MVP anyway, so… there you go. But this guy is one season removed from people wondering if he could even be the Eagles’ franchise quarterback, and in the biggest game of his life, he completed 27 of 38 passes for 304 yards, one touchdown, and no interceptions. He also ran 15 times for 70 yards and three touchdowns, and I think the performance here was entirely emblematic of the quarterback he’s become.
Hurts is also one of the NFL’s best pocket passers, and anybody who can’t see that isn’t watching football intelligently. But it’s the ways in which he amplifies and perfects the Eagles’ run game that sets him apart. There are all kinds of ways to win in the NFL, Hurts seems to understand and to be able to draw from all of them, and that to me makes him a top-five quarterback without question.
Luke: I think that’s the biggest disappointment for me in this game. The fact that Hurts’ incredible performance will be swept under the rug by so many people, when he was masterful for most of the night. He made big plays as a passer, both from the pocket and outside of it, he made big plays as a runner, and even after that huge mistake with the fumble, he bounced right back and led them back to the end zone multiple times to build a big lead. That fumble was crushing, but this loss is way more on the defense and special teams for the Eagles than it is on the one mistake Hurts made all night. I’ve said it for two weeks, that Hurts is the biggest reason the Eagles are in the Super Bowl, and he was the biggest reason they had a chance to win.
Can the Eagles gat back and win it all?
(Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)
A lot went wrong for the Eagles in this Super Bowl at the worst possible time. But do you think they can get back to next year’s Super Bowl and beyond, or was this more of a one-off season?
Doug: I don’t think there’s any question, as long as they take care of a rather imposing upcoming free agent class. They have Jason Kelce, Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, Javon Hargrave, James Bradberry, T.J. Edwards, Kyzir White, Isaac Seumalo, Miles Sanders, and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson as primary free agents. They have about $8.3 million in estimated cap space for 2023, but there aren’t a lot of obvious cuts to free up more room.
That said, they also have the 10th and 30th picks in the 2023 draft, they have four picks in the Top 95, Howie Roseman is a wizard, and the coaching staff is great as long as they hold that together – which they won’t, because offensive coordinator Shane Steichen is the Colts’ new head coach. Still, this team doesn’t strike me as one that will be particularly susceptible to a Super Bowl loser’s hangover. I would more trust this organization to recover than most.
Luke: Yeah, I’m with you. This organization has been one of the best in the league in recent years with some of the decisions they’ve made, both in coaching and player personnel. They’ve obviously got one of the most dynamic franchise quarterbacks in the league. I’m most interested to see how they reload the coaching staff, assuming both coordinators get poached for head coaching positions elsewhere. The roster will be fine.
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