Serious Question about.......

PENALTIES last night.

Vikings vs Seahawks on MNF.


In light of increasing outrage (league wide) over poor officiating. Is it possible that the NFL intentionally “let’em play” last night?

Do y’all think that the NFL actually mandates stuff like this ?

Fact is, there were not that many yellow rags tossed around last night .

My eyes saw a pretty clean game played by both teams but I’m also fairly certain that there was a lot of “holding” on both teams that could have been, and usually is called/flagged.

It’s possible that I’m being silly but I truly am surprised that we didn’t see the flag fest that we almost always do.

Did we really watch a clean game, or is it possible that the NFL attempted to regain some credibility on the national stage? Maybe some of both?

It seemed like we got away with a few borderline false starts, but overall I liked the handsoff nature of the officiating. I have generally like that crew of refs, so it may just be their style.

They treated it like a playoff game, rightfully so. Which they would call it like that every week.

pmedic920":2ip4n017 said:

PENALTIES last night.

Vikings vs Seahawks on MNF.


In light of increasing outrage (league wide) over poor officiating. Is it possible that the NFL intentionally “let’em play” last night?

Do y’all think that the NFL actually mandates stuff like this ?

Fact is, there were not that many yellow rags tossed around last night .

My eyes saw a pretty clean game played by both teams but I’m also fairly certain that there was a lot of “holding” on both teams that could have been, and usually is called/flagged.

It’s possible that I’m being silly but I truly am surprised that we didn’t see the flag fest that we almost always do.

Did we really watch a clean game, or is it possible that the NFL attempted to regain some credibility on the national stage? Maybe some of both?

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I was thinking the same thing. I am sure officials get briefed before the game. Remember the officials are employees of the league. They have a supervisor in the League office. They do receive direction. Those that can follow direction advance. The game was a pleasure to watch because you weren't worried about a flag on every big play.

Eamon696":3m4mykkm said:

It seemed like we got away with a few borderline false starts, but overall I liked the handsoff nature of the officiating. I have generally like that crew of refs, so it may just be their style.

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I remember at least one play in which Duane Brown was up and back a full step before the snap. Or at least it looked that way. No flag.

I also remember at least one block where Brown had his hands on the defenders shoulder pads, definitely looked like borderline holding to me. Again, no flag.

You might be on to something. Even the Flowers miracle pick was a borderline early contact situation, followed by some great hands action to haul the ball in. Yet again, no flag.

I don't think I ever worried a whole lot about winning the game after the 3d quarter. But there were numerous opportunities for the zebras to intervene and they didn't.

You may be on to something.

sutz":25imztxf said:

Eamon696":25imztxf said:

You might be on to something. Even the Flowers miracle pick was a borderline early contact situation, followed by some great hands action to haul the ball in. Yet again, no flag.

You may be on to something.

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I felt the same way. IMHO, Trey didn't interfere with the receiver's ability to catch the ball, but prior to MNF, a Referee would have thrown a flag on that because it looked bad.

I'd like to think as December's here and the playoffs are looming that the refs are allowing the players to play........but I'll need to see a bigger sample size before I buy into this theory.

But man, how refreshing was it to not be frustrated 10 times last night by ticky tack called penalties, and more importantly how great was it for just the sheer flow of the game.

Not sure why the league and officials can't see how allowing the players to play more makes for a better product.

What an absolute joy of a game to watch.

Borderline PIs, on both teams, ignored.

Borderline false starts, on both teams, ignored.

Holding, on both teams, ignored.

The flags that were thrown were blatant, and good calls, even the red ones LOL.

That should be a model game for all of the league official's to aspire to. Maybe a training film for next year.

I am sure someone out there has statistics, but when I see a game officiated like this, I always wonder if it's just the crew. I am sure that some crews have a higher tendency to throw flags while others may have more of a tendency to keep them in their pockets.

Either way, I would much rather see a game like this where only the blatant is called and it doesn't seem to be one-sided for either team. I could get on board with all games being officiated similarly. I spend enough time yelling at the players, yelling at the refs just makes my throat hurt the next day

bigskydoc":2xts8m72 said:

What an absolute joy of a game to watch.

Borderline PIs, on both teams, ignored.

Borderline false starts, on both teams, ignored.

Holding, on both teams, ignored.

The flags that were thrown were blatant, and good calls, even the red ones LOL.

That should be a model game for all of the league official's to aspire to. Maybe a training film for next year.

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I agree 100%

Do you think it was coincidental, or to you think there may have been a concerted effort to officiate the game that way?
You know, stifle some of the outrage.

4 penalties total.Agree with everyone it made a great game to watch. Hopefully this is the way games get called more often.

kidhawk":3g1fopec said:

I am sure someone out there has statistics, but when I see a game officiated like this, I always wonder if it's just the crew. I am sure that some crews have a higher tendency to throw flags while others may have more of a tendency to keep them in their pockets.

Either way, I would much rather see a game like this where only the blatant is called and it doesn't seem to be one-sided for either team. I could get on board with all games being officiated similarly. I spend enough time yelling at the players, yelling at the refs just makes my throat hurt the next day

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Absolutely.
We’ve gotten so used to complaining (rightfully so) about the “officiating”, this game was so refreshing in that aspect.

I’d feel the same even if we had not gotten the “W”.


For me, I almost didn’t notice the officials. That’s how, IMHO it should always be.

I was wondering about this same exact same thing. Was this game an outlier or were all the games down in penalties this weekend? If all the games were as low in penalties as last nights MNF game, it would indicate a concerted effort by the league to dial back the number of flags thrown. If that is the case then I applaud the NFL for recognizing the problem but seriously question why it took them so damn long!

Pretty sure we got away with an obvious false start in the second half, but Duane Brown also had his face pushed straight up in the air (like the kind the Packers benefit from even when there's no hands to the face, but actually real).

Officating was fine, end of subject, now the Announcer's where do we start..............

253hawk":65r7rzrk said:

Pretty sure we got away with an obvious false start in the second half, but Duane Brown also had his face pushed straight up in the air (like the kind the Packers benefit from even when there's no hands to the face, but actually real).

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But I like both of these non-calls.

You poll fans, and it'd be a landslide as to which way they'd like games to be called, tight or let the players play.

It's almost playoff time, let the players play some football like we saw last night. SO much of a better product when they do that. If it's egregious, throw the flag. If not, swallow your damn whistle.

I was just thinking about this and looking for exactly this thread (thank you OP). I definitely felt like they "let 'em play" last night and it was SO refreshing!!! I don't know if it was due to the growing scrutiny of the officiating or if it was just a coincidence but I for one hope we see more games called like this. Both teams got away with some stuff, but they seemed to call (or not call) it evenly. There was definitely some holding going on but it was on both sides and I much prefer a game with letting some of that stuff slide rather than a flag fest.

chris98251":3t8jwtw2 said:

Officating was fine, end of subject, now the Announcer's where do we start..............

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Did you even read the post?

WTF kind of response was that.

Doh!


Go make your own thread about the announcers if you want to discuss them.

I know when I looked down at the bottom of the screen and saw that it was the 3rd quarter and Seattle didn't have a penalty that something was WAAAAAYYYY off. I mean lets think about this for a second, when was the last time you watched a Seahawks game and saw that? It was pretty bad when even Joe Tessitoire saw Duane Brown move early and yet the refs did nothing, not that I was really complaining (at least not until I noticed our D-line getting absolutely mugged) but maybe the league has finally taken notice that their officiating has been hot garbage this year and so they used this game as a measuring stick, which is good because that game had HUGE play-off implications depending on the outcome and I think the last thing they want is another ref controversy in Seattle when the stakes are so high for both teams right now.

It really felt nice to finally watch a football game where they just let them play ball. Both teams were aggressive and the refs finally didn't impact the game at all. This is the type of football I wish we could see a lot more.