@opal312 said:

Roger Goodell has got to go! The game is horrible! The refs Stink and Jon Gruden is the only one who says anything.

Every year it gets worse. Goodell looks at covering his ass and the bottom line.

WSS

@jrb12711 said:

They just can't play the game any more. And what I think is worse is how every catch is now over analyzed and every friggin' fumble is analyzed. A guy could be going down to the ground,while still holding onto the ball, but if there is any ball movement at all, then the ball is coming out and it's a fumble. But they don't look as to "why" the ball is coming out. Maybe the player is moving it due to natural body motion. And then "WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE RULE... THE GROUND CAN'T CAUSE A FUMBLE"?! You don't hear that from Mike Carey or the other former referee.

For catches, it used to be, did you have two feet in bounds, and that is all that mattered. You could be juggling the ball like a 2 AM whore but as long as your feet were in and you never dropped the ball it was a catch. Now we have to watch a replay from 5 different angles and if there is any ball movement that can possibly be perceived as "not having control" before you go out of bounds, then it's not a catch.

And don't get me started on QB's and whether the arm was moving forward or not when there is a possible fumble. I don't care if the QB's arm was 90% of the way through the throwing motion; if the ball get's knocked out of his hand, it's a god damn fumble. Only when the QB releases the ball voluntarily is it a pass. The whole, "the arm was going forward" is bull butter. What if the QB was pump faking? What if he was actually going to pull it back in?

I think the NFL is starting to get refs from the NBA...makes the game so hard to watch, especially when they call fouls on plays where the foul had no bearing on the play.

That's compared to 122 accepted through 3 weeks in 2014: http://www.nflpenalties.com/penalty/offensive-holding?year=2014&view=week

That's a hair under 21% increased through the first three weeks on offensive holding alone. Also of note 730 penalties accepted is a new record this year.

@tour2ma said:

Interesting, I'll look forward to seeing your grades.

@opal312 said:

Roger Goodell has got to go! The game is horrible! The refs Stink and Jon Gruden is the only one who says anything.

Every year it gets worse. Goodell looks at covering his ass and the bottom line.

On-field ain't Roger, Opal... it's the "Competition Committee" that refers rule changes and points of emphasis to the full complement of owners at their annual meeting(s).

Every year it gets worse. Goodell looks at covering his ass and the bottom line.

In general I think there's a combination of impact on the play and obviousness that are considered when a holding flag is being considered.

Just started grading Game 1... took forever to get thru our drive #1... I am rusty. Anyway no holds were called on us in that drive, but I saw two that could've been... a near head-lock by JT and a nice tackle by Bito.

Other calls... yeah the Alonso call should not have been made. Letter of the law? Maybe, but zero impact on the play and dubious impact on the Falcon TE to boot. Would have taken balls and seriously pissed off Atlanta, but should have picked up and eaten that flag.

Of the egregious non-calls... the one where the Vikes' WR Wallace had his left arm raked down by a diving SF DB in the endzone had to be close to the top of any list.

Either there has to be a fast review process for penalties or we have accept a significant percentage of bad calls/non-calls.

@texasag1969 said:

Gruden said last night that the coaches for Philly must have alerted them to the holds on WR screens (which they were called on at least 3-4 times). I'm guessing the Jets did that too and it obviously worked. It's petty but hell if it works the Browns better be doing that too.

What's up with "they could call holding on every play" ?

So, leave it up to the refs to decide when they WILL call it?

And, again, if you watch the ratbird db pull a receiver, from in back of him, with his hand

on the front of his shoulder,neck, and turn him a bit from the ball... NO CALL ?

But Haden gets a call on him, because he just had his hand on the reciever's waist.

We've seen this garbage too many times.

@browns149 said:

Yeah I'm glad it wasn't just me seeing that, it was crazy the amount I saw in that game in particular too. There were just a bunch of head scratches over the weekend to me and it really seemed like the refs were keen to look for it.

The Atlanta game had two bad ones against Phily. The Kiko Alonso illegal contact that ended up reversing a fumble was a terrible call.