NFL defensive players see more yellow flags
Touchdowns make NFL highlights. Fantasy leaguers want big numbers. Gamblers love the over in over/under bets on point totals. A researcher links high point totals to high TV ratings.
But opinions are split on "points of emphasis" this season in officiating that include stiffer enforcement of illegal contact with receivers and defensive holding. Meanwhile, flags are flying.
The numbers through 13 weeks compared to the same span last season:
• 125 penalties for illegal contact with receivers (5 yards or more past the line), more than triple the 36 in the same period last season.
• 271 defensive holding calls, up from 156 in 2013.
• For penalties of all types, the average is 16.2 a game, up from 14.4 last season.
Dean Blandino, NFL vice president of officiating, says it's not about scoring. Points of emphasis also include offensive interference and illegal use of hands (such as hands to the face) by the offense or defense, which also are up.
"The motivation really is consistency," Blandino said. "Over the course of the last six to seven years, the competition committee felt that these fouls have been under-officiated and there was more gray in the rules."
Blandino said the points of emphasis will stay just that.
"The direction and point of emphasis is going to go throughout the year," he said. "We're not going to change direction at the end of the year, last month (of the regular season) or going into the postseason."
But given NFL games averaged an all-time high 46.8 points a game in 2013, it puzzles former NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira that the league would get tougher on illegal contact and defensive holding.
"To what, to open up the passing game? Like the passing game needs to be opened up," said Pereira, Fox Sports' rules analyst. "Quite frankly, I didn't agree in 2004 when they did it, and I was there."
This year's scoring average (46 points a game) is on pace with last season's record.
"Is it going to result in three passers that throw for over 5,500 yards like some predicted before the season? I don't think that's turning out to be the case," Pereira said.
The rate of illegal contact/defense holding calls has been on a downward trend overall since the early weeks of the season, though last weekend did yield a season-high 34 defensive holding calls.
Blandino said teams have adjusted. Pereira agreed but also said officials make common sense adjustments.
En route to a Super Bowl title last season, the Seattle Seahawks led the NFL in penalties. There's the theory this season's crackdown is an offshoot of how Seattle shut down Peyton Manning's receivers and the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl.
"Nobody wants to see Peyton Manning get blown out. Those guys were able to be very handsy, very physical on those receivers," safety Ryan Clark of the Washington Redskins said.
This season, the Seahawks are tied for the lead with 102 penalties. According to NFLPenalties.com, their 10 defensive holding calls rank second only to the New England Patriots (13).
Last Thursday night in a win over the San Francisco 49ers, the Seahawks were penalized 14 times for 105 yards, including four defensive holding calls.
"All I can tell you is we're working on it,'' said Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll. " … We're playing real hard and really aggressive, and it's like last year.''
KEEPING THEM GLUED
Fans chant, "Defense, defense." Rodney Paul, professor of sports management at Syracuse University, has done research showing TV viewers like scoring, too.
Paul has studied TV ratings and how they relate to anticipated points totals going into games (based on gambling projections). He's found higher anticipated scoring leads to higher TV ratings.
"And how high-scoring the game was also tended to keep viewers longer," said Paul. "I think it's been there for a long time for the NFL, and my guess is it's pretty consistent across sports that people like scoring."
Completion percentage is up (62.9 percent to 61.2 last season). So is average passing yards per game (240.0 to 235.6).
Yet the NFL said average game time is down, 3:05:50 to 3:08:17 through week 13 of last season. Blandino cites multiple factors, including new wireless communication for officials, a new replay center in New York – and fewer incomplete passes, which stop the clock.
UNDERSTANDING THE RULES
Pereira prefers the flight of a pass to the flutter of a flag.
He keeps stats on penalties, and said there were 41 illegal contact calls the first three weeks. The past three weeks, according to NFL reports, there have been 28. Pereira said there were 75 holding calls the first three weeks (exactly 25 each). NFL numbers show 61 the past three weeks, due largely to 54 the last two weeks.
But overall, there's still been a downward trend.
"That's a good illustration of how the teams have adjusted," said Blandino.
Have officials let up?
"It's not a factor,'' said Blandino.
Safety Ryan Clark of the Redskins: "I don't think it's been called as harshly as it was in the preseason.''
Pereira said that when the NFL also cracked down on illegal contact in 2004 it produced a jump in calls but that they eventually tapered off over years.
Blandino said the majority of 2013 coaches' question were about illegal contact, holding, offensive pass interference and hands to the face – all now points of emphasis.
Baltimore coach John Harbaugh: "We all send in questions. We all want to know why stuff gets called, and we want to understand so we can teach our guys how to play, but that seems to be very elusive."