Anyone else notice a lot fewer holding penalties?

hangumhi

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It's just my eyeball test (I don't have stats) but it sure seems like the NFL made an emphasis to overlook holding penalties in the playoffs. I just didn't see very many called even when they were blatant. This goes for all teams/games.

A bit different but along the same lines I didn't seem to see many illegal contact penalties. My hope is that the Hawks play a lot closer to the line of scrimmage in the superbowl and really put an emphasis on jamming the Patriot's receivers; especially Gronk.
 

mikeak

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I think it was Bennet that was held from behind trying to run the other way. The refs somehow missed it, threw a flag in Avril - hands to the face RIGHT NEXT TO THE HOLD

So yes. I agree
 

Sports Hernia

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I've noticed the "Legacy teams" getting away with a ton of holding, not just in the playoffs. If they put an emphasis on offensive holding, teams like Dallas, GB, and the Pats would be hosed.
 

ManBunts

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The NFL has seemed to very much take the stance of letting teams play, at least in the playoffs. I'm not saying there weren't misses going both ways, or bad calls (thinking of that "hands to the face" call), but in general, I like that they're letting the game be the game. I was VERY worried during the season that the enormous quantity of calls, and the quality of them, would trickle into the playoffs. Luckily, seems like it hasn't. Let 'em play!
 

Reaneypark

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There seems to be a systematic effort to allow holding if it's protecting pocket passers, especially well-known passers. It's too prevalent to not notice.
 

Sgt. Largent

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ManBunts":kr1p3rxd said:
The NFL has seemed to very much take the stance of letting teams play, at least in the playoffs. I'm not saying there weren't misses going both ways, or bad calls (thinking of that "hands to the face" call), but in general, I like that they're letting the game be the game. I was VERY worried during the season that the enormous quantity of calls, and the quality of them, would trickle into the playoffs. Luckily, seems like it hasn't. Let 'em play!


This...................call the egregious and obvious penalties, other than that let the players play.
 

kidhawk

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The "let 'em play" type of penalties usually drop off quite a bit in the playoffs. It's part of the reason I love playoff football more than any other time of the year.
 

RolandDeschain

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hangumhi":32fh5p79 said:
It's just my eyeball test (I don't have stats) but it sure seems like the NFL made an emphasis to overlook holding penalties in the playoffs. I just didn't see very many called even when they were blatant. This goes for all teams/games.

A bit different but along the same lines I didn't seem to see many illegal contact penalties. My hope is that the Hawks play a lot closer to the line of scrimmage in the superbowl and really put an emphasis on jamming the Patriot's receivers; especially Gronk.
Well, they don't seem to have overlooked them in the 2014 playoffs compared to the 2013 playoffs, but they sure did in week 20 (championship weekend) compared to last year. I looked it up:

2013 weeks 18-20 (pre-Super Bowl playoff games) holding penalties:
Offensive holding: 18 (includes six thrown in week 20's championship games, but not the five more in Super Bowl)
Defensive holding: 10 (includes two thrown in week 20's championship games, and none were thrown in Super Bowl)

2014 weeks 18-20 (pre-Super Bowl playoff games) holding penalties:
Offensive holding: 15 (Zero in week 20)
Defensive holding: 15 (Only one in week 20)

The 2014 non-Super Bowl playoffs had 30 holding flags thrown compared to 28 in the same span for 2013, so that's pretty similar, but the 2014 championship weekend of week 20 only had one total holding flag thrown compared to eight last year. Seems like a lot more holding should have been called, but this is also a small sample size.
 
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