Some interesting officiating news from Mike Pereira

Winnbrad wrote:

@MikePereira: Reading more and more about the rise of illegal contact and defensive holding penalties. The refs are telling players at camps.

This is still the most interesting part of off-season rule enforcement. IF the league (the owners) want this enforced, it’s a huge game changer, imo.

DCs know the best way to shut down the dink and dunk game is to hold WRs. It disrupts the timing. It’s supposed to be illegal, but it’s only illegal if it gets called. And QBs usually take short drops on those dinky plays. Holding WRs throws a wrench into the machinery. Look at how good Seattle’s secondary was last year. Very physical, which means lots of bumping and holding. If a QB takes a short drop and can’t get rid of the ball in about 2 and a half seconds, he’s in trouble.

If the refs start calling holding on DBs, and continue to do so throughout each game, the passing game will open up even more.

The big question for me is, are the refs going to call it consistently every Sunday? Some ref teams call games much differently than others. It won’t take coaches long to figure out which groups call def holding, and which groups “let’em play”.

Yes, it will be interesting to see what happens.

If they really do limit contact, it will
certainly aid the teams with the best CBs.

I wonder how teams will attack the Rams D
this year.

w
v

I feel ya, but lots of 3-and-outs ain’t good for business. $$$ 🙂

Teams won’t have the time to set up long balls against our DL, anyway…

I expect Williams to set up alignments so that he “creates lanes” that make a slant “look open” when really a LB or nickel is waiting to jump that route, but is covered by a DT so that the QB will never see the spy waiting to jump that route create the INT.