Week 6 Power Ratings Updates

Zero good news for fans of fun this week

De’Von Achane, Justin Jefferson, Anthony Richardson, and James Conner all to the IR.

Added a new tier this week with the 49ers creating a bit of a gap between themselves and the field after a strong win over Dallas. “any given Sunday” and all that, but outside of the game in Philly, the next toughest spot on the schedule for the 49ers is a Christmas Day home game versus Baltimore in which they’d be around a six-point favorite (if the game happened today).

San Francisco 📈

A win of that nature, coupled with a lack of injuries or issues on either side of the ball have them in a new stratosphere: a team that would be AT WORST at pk’em on the road versus 31 other teams.

Other upgrades: CIN, NO, DET

• Cincy will go as Burrow goes, not breaking news here: QBs are important. If he continues to get healthy, the offense becomes good again.

• The Saints had a really nice day defensively, but Carr looking slightly healthier is more important going forward.

• Detroit didn’t play a very good team, but it’s clear that they have an OC who can problem-solve and put together the right game plan.

New England 📉

Pointed out Monday that this wasn’t some dominant offensive performance from New Orleans and the 34 points were a little misleading. I’m not sure the 0 on the other side of the scoreboard was. Pats were 1-14 on 3rd down and got 3 of their eight total first downs off penalty. 156 total yards, three turnovers, and still no answers to what the plan is offensively going forward.

Other downgrades: WAS, ARI, DEN

• Washington jump-started the Bears’ offense and did a poor job of using their top two WRs to attack a bad secondary. An experienced coaching staff should have the upper hand in a short week.

• Arizona is still frisky but clearly doesn’t have the defensive roster to keep good offenses from doing what they want. If the Dobbs regression and some turnovers are a sign of things to come, maybe they lose the “frisky” tag.

• The Broncos lost at home to Zach Wilson. The defensive performance this year compared to what we saw last is stunning.

Horse Collar Shenanigans

Finally, I wanted to get into something that had my head in a pretzel.

I’ve read PFT for many years, and while I think Florio sometimes falls into the media trap of just saying things to get clicks and engagement (see Orlovsky, Daniel) this one had me full “Kombucha Girl Meme”

At the surface level, it’s a horrible take. Giving the referees the autonomy to just award a TD seems like a bridge too far, right? Well, technically in the NFL rules, as Florio points out later, they already have the right to do just that, under the right circumstances.

The rulebook says there are five ways to score a touchdown: running the ball over the line, catching the ball in the end zone, touching the pylon, recovering a fumble in the end zone, AND… “the Referee awards a touchdown to a team that has been denied one by a palpably unfair act”.

In my mind, this would be for something crazy like a player or coach popping off the sideline and tackling a runner on his way to score. I can’t find an example of this in the pros, but this did happen in the 1954 Cotton Bowl (the ref awarded the wronged team a touchdown).

“but Watson was going to score!”

Fair, I hear you, but we have these types of things when a clearly open WR is blatantly interfered with to stop a score. Smart penalties exist and I believe they have a place in the game.

Which is where we finally get to the actual issue and where Florio isn’t wrong.

Most, including myself, think Marcus Peters made a good play. A smart play. The right play. Hell, they were rewarded with it when Green Bay was unable to score and had to settle for three in a game they won by four points.

That’s a problem for the NFL

It’s 2023, and the league needs to be viewed as forward-thinking when it comes to player safety. This isn’t someone holding an arm in the end zone and taking a smart DPI because of the time left on the clock, this is a tackle that was banned after half a dozen guys (most notably Terrell Owens) had major injuries from it in the 2004 season.

So the punishment probably needs to fall somewhere in between the current 15 yards and the lunacy of giving a team the 6 points.

My Take: I think an automatic ejection for the player (on top of the penalty) is probably about right. Maybe things are still happening too fast out there for anyone to care, this is just where I landed. This isn’t something that happens a ton, so maybe I’ve wasted a bunch of keystrokes on nothing.

As is usually the case in nuanced problems like this, someone probably has a better answer. By all means, hit me with it, I’d love to hear what you’ve got.

🚨Podcast Tonight🚨

Drew and I will get together at 8 pm EST tonight and rip through each and every game happening this Thursday/Sunday. We’ll time-stamp it in case you can’t join live, but I do love it when you join live, the questions and comments make the product better. As always, it’ll be up in podcast form tomorrow morning.