Barakas":3izlvi0g said:
Just goes to show....be careful what you wish for.
All we heard for the last two years is how Seattle cheats and gets away with it because they know the refs will not call every single penalty.
Well, congrats everyone...you got exactly what you wanted, well except for the fact that Seattle has been penalized the least with the new emphasis.
:sarcasm_on: Of course this fact will just feed all of the conspiracy theories that the NFL wants Seattle to win.... :sarcasm_off:
Not really. The hawks are very well coached. They were very well coached when they were better at pushing the limits of five yard contact than other teams, and they're just as well coached since they've more succesfully incorporated the new rules than other teams. In both instances the constant has been that they've been very well coached, which shouldn't surprise anyone.
Basically, IMO Hawks fans gloating about the lack of defensive passing penalties for their team so far are 1) underselling how well coached their players are in order to score some silly point against comments-section trolls and 2) setting themselves up for an aneurysm when the bullet happens to come up the Hawks' way in the russian roulette if ticky-tacky defensive holding penalties.
Personally the new rules don't bother me*, and I think anyone expecting the transition to players following them and refs correctly calling them two games through the regular season should have probably gotten their expectations in check.
*And you know they REALLY don't bother me given that the 9ers got popped with some really crazy ones, and game changing ones, on both offense and defense so far (which I don't complain about because, calls, like bounces, go both ways over time, and it's just the way it goes).