Call Off the Zebras

Brady_to_Moss said:

We can all see it. THe NFL wants 42-32 score games. Not 17-14. For those fans on the fence...us who want good D? F us

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I'm beginning to suspect that Mark Cuban may be on to something here...

"Ref!! Ref!!! he said a bad word to me!! Ref!!!??"

"15 yards unsportsmanlike contact...burning opponents ears with profanity...2nd down!!!"..

anybody ever listen to Pantera?..5 Minutes Alone?...THAT is all I want...5 minutes with the Goon.

Joker said:

anybody ever listen to Pantera?..5 Minutes Alone?...THAT is all I want...5 minutes with the Goon.

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Quite the anachronism. Weren't you a member of AARP before Pantera came out?

Mike Freeman is pessimistic, or else ranting to make a point:

This is going to be a very bad year for defensive coaches. There will be a lot of hair pulling and temper tantrums. And I won't blame them because the sport will take another turn toward favoring offense.

...

The NFL won't be backing down on this. At all. So what you will see in the 2014 season are offensive records. Lots and lots and lots of offensive records.

Not only will more penalties be called on defenses, leading to the continuation of drives, but something even worse will happen: Defenses like Seattle's, New England's and a few others that rely heavily on man-to-man coverage will be deeply affected.

Defensive backs are going to be scared to play receivers tight. Cushions will be large. Passing lanes will increase.

Great throwers like Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning will destroy defenses given that extra room, and even average quarterbacks will put up big numbers. The meanness of defenses will be corralled.

It will be one big passing fiesta.

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Mike Freeman's 10-Point Stance: RG3 Won't Make It Through the Regular Season | Bleacher Report

Over or under 23 penalties tomorrow. I say 26. It's going to be so bad...

Every other play is a flag in this pitt-eagles game

Yay another 27 penalties tonight. Just what I want to see, the stupid ref stopping play every other minute.

Brady_to_Moss said:

Over or under 23 penalties tomorrow. I say 26. It's going to be so bad...

Every other play is a flag in this pitt-eagles game

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I think they could hit 30 tomorrow

juny said:

Yay another 27 penalties tonight. Just what I want to see, the stupid ref stopping play every other minute.

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735 called in 34 games...last year only 54 illegal contact in 256 games. reg season

If people still think it's to emphasize new rules they are a bit off...now it's defiantly looking more and more like higher scores.


This was said after the game by that turf that said they won't change how they call things.

L Network asked Blandino to elaborate on the penalty pileup.

"We anticipated this," Blandino said. "We had four major points of emphasis this year: defensive holding, illegal contact, illegal use of hands and offensive pass interference. That's more than we've had in years past. The direction is to strictly enforce these fouls. That's why we're seeing a spike in the penalties during the preseason.

"There's an adjustment period for our officials and coaches and players, but when the regular season rolls around, everybody will be on the same page, and I think you'll see those foul totals go down."

Blandino said the goal is to determine which calls were made incorrectly and establish consistency before Week 1. He also thought 27 penalties were an atypical spike.

"We certainly don't want to slow down the game. ... That's a lot. Historically, it's more in line with 15, 16 (penalties) per game. We certainly don't want to delay the game, but we also have to call the violations that are there."

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It sounds like they want to be around 15-16 a game. So less then now at least...I hope.

I couldn't agree more with the opinions in this thread.

I also feel another huge contributing factor to this total B.S. is the concussion issue. The NFL is scared to death about it, and it's probably their major concern right now because they swept it under the rug for so many years. And believe me they are still doing their best to pretend that elephant is not in the room.

By tightening the rules like this early in the season not only do they feed the fantasy demon, but they also limit the liability on brain damage. In their eyes anyway.

I think they will call it tight (not as tight as we have seen so far I hope) during the early regular season, then once the playoffs start it will loosen up.

Galeb said:

Quite the anachronism. Weren't you a member of AARP before Pantera came out?

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Ian needs to put a stop to the incessant H8 speech against the elderly here

Ugh. I was all fired-up for tonight's game until I finally read this thread and realized what I was in for. Hopefully, it will go as PFS74 suggested and the flags will begin to be thrown somewhat less often this week and even more in the regular season.

The Scrizz said:

The guy I most want to see in regards to this new emphasis is Gronk. He is routinely dragging guys along on his routes. If you aren't allowed to contact him past 5 yards you may as well just go home because there is no hope in covering him. If they treat everyone equally (yeah, even made myself laugh there), he becomes the single biggest mismatch in the game with exception of Megatron.

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They won't enforce this on big, bruising TEs, just the dainty, little ones like Graham. More likely, the emphasis on OPI will be seen with Gronk, because his strength turns incidental hand fighting to his advantage.

rochrist said:

RE the flags, I heard someone on the radio today (I think Blandino) and he said two interesting things: 1) that incidental contact, handfighting, etc while running downfield should NOT be called and 2) that if the rec is initiating contact and the defender uses his hands to fend him off, that should not be called either.

If they actually call it that way, I'll feel somewhat better about the whole thing.

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Yeahbut, if the receiver is initiating contact, it should be OPI, as it is not incidental. The offensive bias is present at all levels of the process. There aren't enough former NCAA linebackers officiating the game, so the smaller offensive players (meanoldGronk excepted, of course) get the PI calls on incidental hand-fighting, let alone illegal contact. For all the moaning about comparisons to basketball, there is at least the principal of allowing the defender to obtain and maintain position as part of sound defense. You can't even do that in NFL pass defense.


The ultimate question is whether the homers will leave here after BB and TB retire, or will the true football fans leave, because it's simply not worth it anymore without their excellence around to compensate for the NFL's ruination of the game.

pencilneckgeek said:

Ugh. I was all fired-up for tonight's game until I finally read this thread and realized what I was in for...
The ultimate question is whether the homers will leave here after BB and TB retire, or will the true football fans leave, because it's simply not worth it anymore without their excellence around to compensate for the NFL's ruination of the game.

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Followed the Patriots thru the years of wilderness but if the trend to stats enhancing fantasy football continues unabated post BB and TFB, I can find better things to do in my life and become a casual occasional viewer at most. I totally dropped MLB then my Celtics & NBA so this is not an idle threat.

PatsWickedPissah said:

Ian needs to put a stop to the incessant H8 speech against the elderly here

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I'm old too.

Joker said:

"Ref!! Ref!!! he said a bad word to me!! Ref!!!??"

"15 yards unsportsmanlike contact...burning opponents ears with profanity...2nd down!!!"..

anybody ever listen to Pantera?..5 Minutes Alone?...THAT is all I want...5 minutes with the Goon.

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Using a certain racial slur will be a 15 yard penalty this season.

As for the Pantera reference, wasn't there a similar line/quote from Pink Floyd's The Wall? "Just five minutes, Worm your honor. Him and me, alone"

yes, nice reference...I like the Pantera reference because it is so visceral...

as far as this poor ol' defenseless Joe theory, I'll gum ya's to death...

Ivan said:

This would be so much easier to take if the NFL simply followed Jack Lambert's advice "Put a dress on them." He was referring to QB's but dressing all the WR's in nice long flower print dresses would make the illegal touching calls much more palatable. No means no.

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It's funny that you never heard any "They're sissyfying the league" talk back in 2004 when they did the first illegal contact emphasis. Like this one, that didn't have to do with player safety or reducing injuries. And, while I'm biased, if you go back and watch games from 2003 or earlier, the contact wasn't that ridiculous. When you hear people complain about the Rams SB or the '03 game against the Colts, you'd think receivers were just getting tackled at the LOS. It just wasn't happening.

As for the rules emphasis this season, I think we're going to see it affect the regular season games. If the officials revert to calling illegal contact like they did last season, then this whole exercise would just be a waste of time. Even though it will make the games less watchable, I can't see the league admitting they made a mistake and backing down.

This is just infuriating. Did anybody say last season, "you know what this league needs, is more scoring"?! Absolutely nobody. I mean pey-pey just broke the td and yards record for a single season. Scoring has been steadily increasing every year. Really where did this extra emphasis come from? Even that asshat polian is out of the league to complain for his team. Why is the most successful pro league keep messing with things that aren't broke!?

I will be shocked if there are less than 20 flags tonight, ugh.

Sorry, but for me, the games are unwatchable. No Rhytm, no flow. If this continues in regular, i will cancelling my subscription.

If the NFL calls it like the pre season..pats will have a much tougher year then we think. Look at all the big time WRs we play. Chicago may have the league's best O with Marshall and Jeffrey if you can't touch them.

Over/under on hankies for tonight/