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Posted by Rafael
Fewer of these have been thrown for holding in 2011
Today we begin a new feature. I'm going to debate an issue of the day with Blogging the bEast's Jim Kempski, known to my old site readers as Jimmy K. We hope to include other guest members as the year progresses. The first edition looks at the lack of holding flags in the opening weeks of the NFL season:
Rafael Vela:
Cowboys fans are justifiably irked this week, after a Monday night contest that saw Redskins blockers conduct a controlled mugging of Demarcus Ware. He was grabbed, hugged, tripped, and in one case tackled, to prevent him from sacking Rex Grossman.
Anger aside, I think there may be a bigger issue here. I've seen an unprecedented level of clutching and grabbing this year, and wonder if this is more than mere coincidence? Think back to the Summer of '98, when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa attacked Roger Maris' decades-old home run record. They were the at the fore of an offensive explosion that saw MLB home run numbers rise considerably. Pundits claimed the home run chase "saved baseball'' in the eyes of a public smarting from the '94 work stoppage, which cancelled that year's World Series.
Analysts then wondered if the game had ''juiced'' the baseball, adding more offensive spark. We've since learned there was another form of juicing going on, and that the game was happy to ignore its long-term effects, to reap the great short-term publicity.
I don't believe the NFL is acting so cynically, but I do think the NFL indeed may be acting, and acting defensively. It just avoided its own work stoppage. It lost an offseason, which is critical for building offensive line continuity. It has lost Q-ratings king Peyton Manning for the season and this past week Michael Vick's and Tony Romo's injuries dominated the headlines. Quarterbacks make the league go round, and this is not the type of news the league and its fans want or need.
Jimmy Kempski:
I think there’s certainly some merit to the thinking that referees are perhaps letting some holds go early in the season. Around this time last year, Mark Maske of the Washington Post noted that there were 191 offensive holding calls through the first 4 weeks of the season (47.75 holds per week). I totaled up the Week 3 numbers, and found that there were a total of 35, obviously far below the average last season. Just 16 of those were on called pass plays (if the QB dropped back to pass, then scrambled, they were counted as well).
Obviously, we’re all aware that this was a shortened offseason due to the lockout. Offensive line play is a lot more sophisticated than it seems to the untrained eye. Coaches and GMs around league place a high value on “continuity.” The longer a group of offensive linemen play together, the better they’ll be handling blitzes, stunts, etc. This season, there are all sorts of new faces in new places on offensive lines league-wide. Look no further than the NFC East – In Philly and Dallas, there are new starters at 4 of their OL spots (Todd Herremans moved from LG to RT, and Kyle Kosier moved from LG to RG). The Giants have new starters at 3 spots. The Redskins have 2 new starters. Combine the fact that teams had a lot of turnover this offseason with the fact that they didn’t have much time to let their offensive lines gel, and one would think that holding penalties would be up, not down. I think it’s fair to say something is fishy.
"Jimmy Kempski is the founder of Blogging the bEast, covering the NFC East. You can follow him on twitter at Jimmy_Beast."
Fewer of these have been thrown for holding in 2011
Today we begin a new feature. I'm going to debate an issue of the day with Blogging the bEast's Jim Kempski, known to my old site readers as Jimmy K. We hope to include other guest members as the year progresses. The first edition looks at the lack of holding flags in the opening weeks of the NFL season:
Rafael Vela:
Cowboys fans are justifiably irked this week, after a Monday night contest that saw Redskins blockers conduct a controlled mugging of Demarcus Ware. He was grabbed, hugged, tripped, and in one case tackled, to prevent him from sacking Rex Grossman.
Anger aside, I think there may be a bigger issue here. I've seen an unprecedented level of clutching and grabbing this year, and wonder if this is more than mere coincidence? Think back to the Summer of '98, when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa attacked Roger Maris' decades-old home run record. They were the at the fore of an offensive explosion that saw MLB home run numbers rise considerably. Pundits claimed the home run chase "saved baseball'' in the eyes of a public smarting from the '94 work stoppage, which cancelled that year's World Series.
Analysts then wondered if the game had ''juiced'' the baseball, adding more offensive spark. We've since learned there was another form of juicing going on, and that the game was happy to ignore its long-term effects, to reap the great short-term publicity.
I don't believe the NFL is acting so cynically, but I do think the NFL indeed may be acting, and acting defensively. It just avoided its own work stoppage. It lost an offseason, which is critical for building offensive line continuity. It has lost Q-ratings king Peyton Manning for the season and this past week Michael Vick's and Tony Romo's injuries dominated the headlines. Quarterbacks make the league go round, and this is not the type of news the league and its fans want or need.
Jimmy Kempski:
I think there’s certainly some merit to the thinking that referees are perhaps letting some holds go early in the season. Around this time last year, Mark Maske of the Washington Post noted that there were 191 offensive holding calls through the first 4 weeks of the season (47.75 holds per week). I totaled up the Week 3 numbers, and found that there were a total of 35, obviously far below the average last season. Just 16 of those were on called pass plays (if the QB dropped back to pass, then scrambled, they were counted as well).
Obviously, we’re all aware that this was a shortened offseason due to the lockout. Offensive line play is a lot more sophisticated than it seems to the untrained eye. Coaches and GMs around league place a high value on “continuity.” The longer a group of offensive linemen play together, the better they’ll be handling blitzes, stunts, etc. This season, there are all sorts of new faces in new places on offensive lines league-wide. Look no further than the NFC East – In Philly and Dallas, there are new starters at 4 of their OL spots (Todd Herremans moved from LG to RT, and Kyle Kosier moved from LG to RG). The Giants have new starters at 3 spots. The Redskins have 2 new starters. Combine the fact that teams had a lot of turnover this offseason with the fact that they didn’t have much time to let their offensive lines gel, and one would think that holding penalties would be up, not down. I think it’s fair to say something is fishy.
"Jimmy Kempski is the founder of Blogging the bEast, covering the NFC East. You can follow him on twitter at Jimmy_Beast."
