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Why so many flags in preseason? (1 Viewer)

ponchsox

Footballguy
I'm watching the Patriots vs Eagles and they are throwing the flag on every other flag. Is this going to be the trend this year, where they over officiate every game? If so, I'm going to be very turned off.

 
Can't hold the WR. They are trying to open the game up more I guess. I like idea but I don't like all the flags right now. Hopefully defenses adjust.

 
They seem to be trying to eliminate the grey area that is defensive holding. It happened every play, and people just accepted it.

 
I agree it is making the preseason unwatchable....I can't imagine actually sitting at a stadium through this and paying for it. I can barely watch enough to see the starters play.

 
Was just about to start my own thread. I'm watching the Saints-Titans game and just witnessed a 15 minute span in which only three plays from scrimmage were run. It's partly attributable to penalties, but lack of resources devoted to speedy replay reviews comes into play. Bottom line, the game is indeed becoming unwatchable.

 
And the worst part is that it's pointless. Everyone, including the players, realize that this new "point of emphasis" will last one, maybe two games into the regular season, then the muggings will be overlooked, as usual.

 
It won't be the same in the regular season. They have done this before. When they want to change, they are really strict preseason and ease up once the regular season. It's an adjustment period. Once next season rolls around defenses will have it figured out.

 
To get the message over to players like hitting them with a sledgehammer. I agree it won't continue but don't agree it will just go back to what was called last year. There will be changes.

 
Football is going to be hard to watch with the refs wanting a starring role on sundays. They will be bailing teams out on 3rd and long all game long. Painful!!

 
Football is going to be hard to watch with the refs wanting a starring role on sundays. They will be bailing teams out on 3rd and long all game long. Painful!!
The refs don't even want to call these. The guy in the eagles pats game is tired of calling defensive holding. He just blows through the call now.

 
The experiment of 8 refs in this weeks' games have a factor? Seeing a lot more hands to the face flags this week.

Plus the apprentice refs this week. They have numbers 136 and above and won't be there in the regular season but trying to show themselves when then can.

 
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To get the message over to players like hitting them with a sledgehammer. I agree it won't continue but don't agree it will just go back to what was called last year. There will be changes.
I'm not suggesting it will be called like last year. They are strict in the preseason, so the player will start to adjust. They won't call it as tight in the regular season, but it will trend toward the desired result, because the player will adjust. Its just not going to happen in one season.

 
I saw one of the most awful penalties I have ever seen preseason or RS last night.

Did anyone see it? Jax DB did a legitimate hit on Clausen (IIRC), wasn't even a sack, fairly hit the QB's arm while throwing. A great play. Penalty.

 
Brutal. Can't touch the QB. Can't touch the WR. Can't make big hits over the middle.

We say unwatchable, but clearly we're all still watching...

 
Let's get a twitter campaign against the yellow laundry, tweet your complaints to @NFLCommish, @NFLReferees, maybe they'll hear us.

 
It won't be the same in the regular season. They have done this before. When they want to change, they are really strict preseason and ease up once the regular season. It's an adjustment period. Once next season rolls around defenses will have it figured out.
This. There's always more flags in the preseason, and when they are trying to emphasize something like this, it's usually worse. We'll see more PI/illegal contact flags this year, but it won't be nearly as bad as it is right now.

 
This may be the year that stacking up on stud WRs and waiting on RBs could be the smarter strategy.

 
Go DC Yourself said:
Way to respect your fans who pay to go see preseason games, NFL.
the nfl isn't about respecting its fans. it's about getting their money and maximizing profits. apparently their studies indicate defence and punting do not generate as much revenue as an arena-league style game.

 
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Go DC Yourself said:
Way to respect your fans who pay to go see preseason games, NFL.
the nfl isn't about respecting its fans. it's about getting their money and maximizing profits. apparently their studies indicate defence and punting do not generate as much revenue as an arena-league style game.
High scoring is more entertaining, but I think the crux of it is that more penalties, more reviews, and more scoring= more commercial breaks. It also makes for longer games which again means more commercials.

 
Go DC Yourself said:
Way to respect your fans who pay to go see preseason games, NFL.
the nfl isn't about respecting its fans. it's about getting their money and maximizing profits. apparently their studies indicate defence and punting do not generate as much revenue as an arena-league style game.
High scoring is more entertaining, but I think the crux of it is that more penalties, more reviews, and more scoring= more commercial breaks. It also makes for longer games which again means more commercials.
fantastic point;

as an aside dose all commercial revenue go to the networks or do the network contracts require networks to pay a % of ad revenue to the NFL?

 
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Go DC Yourself said:
Way to respect your fans who pay to go see preseason games, NFL.
the nfl isn't about respecting its fans. it's about getting their money and maximizing profits. apparently their studies indicate defence and punting do not generate as much revenue as an arena-league style game.
High scoring is more entertaining, but I think the crux of it is that more penalties, more reviews, and more scoring= more commercial breaks. It also makes for longer games which again means more commercials.
fantastic point;

as an aside dose all commercial revenue go to the networks or do the network contracts require networks to pay a % of ad revenue to the NFL?
Well for NFL Network, which are currently seeing many of these overly penalized games, the NFL gets all the money. I am not sure if ESPN, NBC, CBS or FOX has to give any % back to the NFL (I doubt it). However, when they negotiate their deals, the length of the games and thus the number of spots networks can sell for NFL football certainly can significantly increase the value of the rights to the NFL games.

 
The NFL is always trying to win over the casual fan. In their opinion the casual fan wants a more high scoring, offensively exciting game. Unfortunately if this continues, the delay and longer games will turn off the casual fan along with the hardcore fan and they will be left with nothing.

 
I'm watching the Patriots vs Eagles and they are throwing the flag on every other flag. Is this going to be the trend this year, where they over officiate every game? If so, I'm going to be very turned off.
What an incredible spectrum!. We'll go from 20-30 flags in a preseason game to the SB, when the flags will be stitched into their painter's pants.

Agree - completely unwatchable.

 
Heard a stat this morning, through preseason week 2 last year there were 12.3 flags per game. This preseason after 2 weeks of games it's up to 19.6.

 
I forget which game it was (Falcons-Texans) but Jeff Triplette was calling the game and it was completely unwatchable.

 
There have also been maybe 4 flags picked up. They are throwing flags on plays that aren't even penalties...they are just itching to call penalties.

 
Is this how they're going to get us to accept the horrible reffing in this league? Let them loose for four preseason games, then reign them in and have us just being thankful it's back the way it was?

 
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There have also been maybe 4 flags picked up. They are throwing flags on plays that aren't even penalties...they are just itching to call penalties.
They're being told to call everything. They don't even seem happy to be making all these calls.

 
The NFL is always trying to win over the casual fan. In their opinion the casual fan wants a more high scoring, offensively exciting game. Unfortunately if this continues, the delay and longer games will turn off the casual fan along with the hardcore fan and they will be left with nothing.
This

And if the tv audience starts to decline the networks will scream bloody murder. The league will then quitely mandate a looser policy on penalties. But right now this crap is unwatchable.

 
I hate it as well, but I am not too worried about it.

They are drilling it into the DBs heads, getting them to think about it, and trying to loosen up the game. Which also sucks, but I think that is expected, and inevitable.

The NFL won't let the game get bogged down by flags. Commercials, yes. But if the NFL thinks that people are getting bored by the flags, you can bet the NFL employees, AKA the field officials, will lighten up.

In fact, I don't think the games being called like this would last a month. With Twitter, the NFL would get the message real fast.

It's made the preseason even worse, that's for sure.

 

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