If you watched the Ravens/Broncos, there were some big hits that were called penalties and rightly so in today's rulebook. However, that's not what I like to see as a NFL fan. I don't want to see anyone hurt but it frustrates me to the level the defense now has to change how they play the game. It's almost as if the only way to stop an offense is to make them turn it over. The NFL and most casual fans don't want to see a 13-10 field position game, I must be sick because I love those kind of games. To answer your questions, I do believe last week there were more under games than over against the spread even those this week there were crazy points.
It's not so much regulating the hits/concussions that make the defenses handicapped. Although, I think that the refs really go overboard with the defense-less receiver and borderline helmet/shoulder hits. It seems like on 99.999% of plays where the helmet looks like it could have touched the head, the refs just throw the flag anyway. The bigger problem IMO are the QB penalties and illegal contact/PI. You can't touch the QB above the chest without getting a flag. That has little to do with concussions, as the vast majority of those penalties could never cause anywhere near a concussion. Most late hit on a QB penalties are BS. Not being able to hit QBs low is laughable. That is just hilarious irony IMO. The league tries SO hard to distance itself from Vegas and gambling, in order to ensure the "credibility of the game". Yet they turn around and treat offenses and QBs and stars completely differently. If not for Brady/Manning, low hits on QBs and illegal contact would not be what they are today. How is that not actively changing the competitive balance of the game. They treat "Vegas" as a dirty word, but turn around and give preferential treatment to their golden boys.Illegal contact has allowed for a much, much, much more open game than we used to watch in the 90's and early 00's. I look at the Greatest Show on Turf and how they were held to 9 offensive points in the NFCCG that year. In today's NFL, you couldn't hold them under 30. And very, very little of that change has to do with concussions or prevention. The PI/Illegal Contact calls allow for too many passing games to have success. Receivers and TEs are bigger, faster, stronger, and quicker. Yet, defenses are supposed to stop them without hitting them very hard or high or before they can secure the catch, and can't touch them at all in covering downfield. It's like saying, "Hey, we want you to fight this guy. You two are pretty much the same size, so it's pretty even. Oh yeah, he gets to bring his 3 friends. And a gun. And we have to chop off your right hand. Also, we're gonna spin you around in this chair 40 times before the start. Ready?" The NFL has legislated defense out of the game under the guise of caring about concussions, which would be the first time ever. And I'm for limiting concussions. I don't want to see people's lives and families suffer from some retired player becoming a vegetable because I'm too much of a meathead to care, screaming at aglowing box in my living room like an animal. And I'm disappointed at the amount of people who are.
