I am hoping that I am just not remembering preseason in previous years but it seems to me the number of penalties being called in the preseason this year is of the charts. There seems to be a penalty on almost every fucking play. If this carries over to the regular season people will be buying ref fatheads instead of players. Who's your favorite ref bro? I have a hochuli jersey.
Remember, it could be worse, we could have the replacement refs out there. That being said, the NFL needs to stop stacking all these calls towards offense. If the defender cannot make contact past 5 yards, neither should the receiver.
It is way off the charts this year, and believe it was from the directive of the NFL. they are strictly enforcing defensive holding and hands to the face in particular. Refs are instructed this preseason to call anything that even looks like either of those two. it's ridiculous.. also agree with above poster. they are trying to turn this into fantasy football, where playing defense no longer applies. defensive holding calls drove me nuts across the league last year, and this year they want to call more? it can be 3rd and 20, and some incidental contact way away from the intended receiver gives the O a first down. if its not that, its incidentally grazing the QB in the head, or hitting the WR too hard. also resulting in first downs for the O. if they keep trending in this direction, with too many flags and no defense, it will become unwatchable at some point. very disappointing.
Yeah I honestly don't understand why there are so many. It seems like whenever there is a doubt they automatically throw the flag. Some of the calls in the Jets vs Giants game were cringe worthy.
