soxhop411 said:
Seriously we have had. Like 6 competitive games this season not including patriots games?
There have been plenty of competitive games, like 6 went to overtime in the past 2 weeks.
What we haven't had are games filled with actual good football. The league is regressing, and so are it's players. This game is to football what Jar Jar Binks was to Star Wars.
I'm not even sure I know what the answer is. Everyone is complaining about the refs throwing too many flags, but the reality is the players are committing these penalties. As we saw last night in the Pats games, when the refs didn't throw the flags on Indy in the first half, it artificially allowed their offense to stay on the field. Then they started throwing the holding flags in the second half and the Pats pass rush was all over Luck. We can't have it both ways and bitch about the flags, and then bitch when our team doesn't get the penalties that it should.
This isn't saying anything about the inconsistent calls, particularly on Pass interference, or what is a catch, what isn't, what is a fumble, what isn't. That's a different discussion, and another reason the NFL is such shit right now, but at least when it comes to the number of penalties, I have a hard time blaming the refs. This is a failure of the coaches and the players. Does anyone know what the numbers look like league wide, for total penalties? It feels like it's gotta be double what it was 5 years ago, but maybe we're all totally wrong.