NFL 2021-2022 Season

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And 94 has to do a neutral zone infraction AGAIN... penalties should NOT be a factor on championship teams, and Dallas has shown that today's going to be a long long long day for their fans.

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Holding... defense number 94... 14th Cowboys penalty of the day... that about wraps it up. SF gonna go to freeze in Lambeau.

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With Dallas out, I get to be a KC fan. Feelin' good after the first half.

[Jack the Stripper]

Fuck KC I’m rooting for the Bills.

Very disappointing performance from Dallas but not all surprising. When SF took the ball 75 yards in their opening drive to score a TD and Dallas went 3 and out in their opening drive I just knew we were in for a long day and would be playing from behind all game. SF scored in their first 3 drives while Dallas only managed one first down in a qtr and a half of football. Cowboys rallied late and the defense managed to get some stops and an interception but the offense never really found their rhythm and again penalties killed them 

Very disappointed Dallas fan

[Typhon]

They ultimately got to the right decision in the end though. The whistle shouldn’t have been blown in the first place. Burrow didn't step, wasn’t even close, and threw the TD pass.

A lot of the refs in the NFL are too old.

   It wasn't the right decision.  Many players, when they here a whistle, instinctually stop playing.  Watch #25 of the Raiders let up when he hears the whistle, instead of continuing to try to impede the pass.  The correct decision was to follow the rules and replay the down.

[Zzzptm]

Dallas needed a running game to chew up the clock, but with penalties taking short yardage plays away, it's like they handed the clock to SF. Games without penalties, things go well, they do their job. Games with penalties... AAAAGGGHHH!

Josh Allen is the Mayor of Western New York right now. If they win, I'll cheer for them.

For the NFC, I'm expecting it to be a showdown between Tampa Bay and Green Bay for the conference title. 49ers and Cards/Rams are fine teams, but it'll be a battle of the Bays, I expect.

On the AFC side, Bengals may very well beat the Titans. I can't see who wins in the KC-Buffalo game, but that game's winner will likely be the AFC champ.

[Zzzptm]

They ultimately got to the right decision in the end though. The whistle shouldn’t have been blown in the first place. Burrow didn't step, wasn’t even close, and threw the TD pass.

A lot of the refs in the NFL are too old.

   It wasn't the right decision.  Many players, when they here a whistle, instinctually stop playing.  Watch #25 of the Raiders let up when he hears the whistle, instead of continuing to try to impede the pass.  The correct decision was to follow the rules and replay the down.

Indeed. Instead we got a "What whistle? You hear a whistle? I didn't hear no whistle." That went right up to the VP of officiating: "[The officials] did not feel the whistle was blown before the receiver caught the ball." - Walt Anderson, NFL VP of Officiating

Jerome Boger's crew will not work the playoffs, wondering what happens to that VP.

[Jack the Stripper]

They ultimately got to the right decision in the end though. The whistle shouldn’t have been blown in the first place. Burrow didn't step, wasn’t even close, and threw the TD pass.

A lot of the refs in the NFL are too old.

   It wasn't the right decision.  Many players, when they here a whistle, instinctually stop playing.  Watch #25 of the Raiders let up when he hears the whistle, instead of continuing to try to impede the pass.  The correct decision was to follow the rules and replay the down.

Bullshit! The Raiders player wasn’t near enough to the Bengals player to break up that pass. Was always going over his head. And we’re talking a very split second from the time the whistle went to the catch. Stop being a stickler for the rules. Right result was reached.

[Zzzptm]

Then the head of the crew, Boger, should have acknowledged that the whistle was blown by mistake and that the ruling of a touchdown holds. To be fair, anyone from New Orleans would attest that this isn't the first time an officiating gaffe has had a significant impact on the outcome of a game. But I'd like it if the officiators would come clean about mistakes at the very least.

It also points out how officiating crews may be worth keeping together through the playoffs. Would Boger have been more ready to acknowledge a mistake if it was someone who'd been on his crew for the last 17 games and not a new guy in the "all-star" officiating crew? Those crews are just like the sports teams in how they work together, find rhythms, and so forth. I'd like to see them be given a chance to stay together as units through the playoffs and championship games.

[Typhon]

Monday's Selection
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L.A. (by the rules)

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Monday's Selection
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L.A. (by the rules)

So far so good.

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... and that's the game! Rams looked very strong, but it was against the Cardinals... will they have a chance against either of the Bays? Hmmm...

[Jack the Stripper]

Christ! Did Stephen A. Smith unleash on the Cowboys.

A lot of what he said is hard to argue with though, even if he did come across more than a little unhinged.

[Zzzptm]

^ Went and saw some of those clips. Dang, he sounded like the Cowboys were the divorce lawyers that slept with his ex-wife while drinking up all his liquor.

All year, the Cowboys have had huge problems with penalties. It's been the same guys, over and over. Now, maybe holding calls are holding calls and it's a matter of "just don't get caught". I get that. But the real killers were the offsides calls on both offense and defense.

There are drills to deal with how to be in the correct stance, how to line up properly, how to not make false motions, how to not jump the gun and give the offense an easy 5 yards from a hard count. My guess is that the Cowboys didn't take drills like those seriously this year, because sloppy play kept them from winning against opponents with a winning record. racking up 6 wins in the division against the Giants, Eagles, and WFT? Garbage wins. The wins that count are against teams that themselves have winning records of worth, and the Cowboys will be one-and-done if they don't have the discipline needed to not hand yards to the opposing team through sloppy play.

That's a coaching problem. If you have great production from certain players that justifies their being on the starting team in spite of their penalties, great. Train them not to make penalties. I've had students that I coached, albeit not in football, but the principle is the same: there's an easily avoidable negative consequence that, if you know the rules and are aware of the rules and are drilled on the rules, you will avoid.

Go to the data: https://www.nflpenalties.com/team/dallas-cowboys?year=2021&view=penalties

And compare that to 2020, there's an increase in those offside/false start/encroachment penalties year on year. Doesn't matter if, overall, Dallas gets more of those calls benefiting them - those are mostly from garbage teams having garbage years. The real pros that have their eyes on the prize got their penalties under control:

Tampa Bay: https://www.nflpenalties.com/team/tampa-bay-buccaneers?year=2021&view=games
Buffalo: https://www.nflpenalties.com/team/buffalo-bills?year=2021
Chiefs: https://www.nflpenalties.com/team/kansas-city-chiefs?year=2021 (note, though, how they got 10 penalties in their close loss to the Bengals)

And check out McCarthy's old outfit Green Bay: https://www.nflpenalties.com/team/green-bay-packers?year=2021 <- These are some seamless numbers, wow!

Go to the season as a whole and sort on the pre-snap count penalties: https://www.nflpenalties.com/index.php?year=2021&view=reg_season

Green Bay is the LOWEST. The teams with 40+? With the exception of Tampa Bay, all of them are gonna be watching football next week if they're not over to Phoenix for some golfing. And Tampa Bay got their penalties out of the way early on, they're playing much cleaner ball right now.

McCarthy should have been on top of those penalties and drilling his team, ESPECIALLY the offensive and defensive linemen, so that they didn't just hand yards away to teams that knew how to line up properly. You get it in their heads and they play more effectively.

Long ago, when I learned how to use a firearm, I was drilled on how every weapon is a loaded weapon and that I am responsible for every round that I discharge and its downrange trajectory. When I see/handle/use a weapon, I am always thinking foremost in my mind that this is a loaded weapon and I am responsible for every round in it that I discharge. I then am very cautious about my firearm use. I am not gingerly or timid: but I am safety-first in my mind. By the same token, when I give a speech, I have a drilled mindfulness about that operation. When I drive my car, I have a mindfulness about that (I have one job - operate my vehicle safely. Nothing else matters.) It stands to reason that a well-drilled set of linemen won't be racking up penalties because they'll have a mindfulness about what they're doing that takes effect every time. And when they slip up? Brief reminders get them back in the right frame of mind.

Never mind that last play in the last game: it's the failure to drill properly all year long that doomed the Cowboys.

[Vyn]

The Cowboys...pretty much the largest market team in the league that hasn't been able to get it done since biblical times.

KC has been so inconsistent this season, sometimes they play like a Super Bowl quality team, other times like the JV team from the local high school. They've got a steep mountain to climb with the Bills.