Looking at the games last night, I couldn’t help but to notice the scores. 42-37, 31-24, 30-27, some pretty high scores for a NFL game.
Where’s the defense?
The defenses are playing hard but they keep getting flagged and ejected for form tackles. Hits that were once considered textbook, are now illegal.
An example of that was the hit Clay Matthews landed on Viking’s QB Kirk Cousins. A bam bam play that once would have earned high fives and ooohs in film sessions. Now that is a key penalty that hurt the team.
I understand that the league is concerned with player safety. And after players and commentators came out a few years ago about not letting their kids play football, that and players walking away from the game early, the NFL had to do something to make the game safe. Helmet technology was not evolving fast enough to combat the negative imagery of the game.
The issue is when you evolve the rules to where they are at now. Drives are being extended because of tackles that should be considered form. And this evolves the game.
No more defenses that strikes fear in the hearts of receivers going across the middle. The game will evolve to focusing on players that can cover, versus players that can hit.
This is a new NFL. A game where it will no longer be unheard of to score 21 points in a quarter. This is definitely not our father’s, or grandfather’s, NFL. And we’re going to have to get use to that, because the NFL have no intentions of backtracking soon.
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