Yeah, because we all know the NFL refs are good about admitting their faults. :pity:

And to answer your question, I wouldn't be surprised if we go 0-2 against the Patriots.

 

Doesn't help us against Brady,

 

Brian Hartline has a gift for inducing pass interference calls. I've always speculated that part of it is his weak, spindly legs. He gets knocked around by contact and it ends up making the interference or holding look obvious. He's also a damn good route runner so that's part of it too.

So in theory this could help him be even more effective at drawing calls.

On defense though Cortland Finnegan has vowed to return to his normal level of play by being more physical and annoying toward the wide receiver. He claims it's not dirty, but the NFL could be cracking down to where he gets called anyway. That would be my concern on defense.

 

You beat me to mentioning Finnegan, but the way Davis is playing it may be a problem as well.

 

That's true. Already been called once. He's been so good at predicting those short breaks and he's trying his damnedest to get around the receiver to knock the ball away but they don't seem to care how well it's timed.

 

Grimes may be the best zone corner in the game, he's never overly physical with his opponent, will Davis hasn't really committed a penalty even though he's gotten called for one, so it looks like he's got some off coverage ability as well, Jamar was good in college in his zone duties...I mean if their gonna be consistent across the board I think we have some players that are good candidates to adjust.

As far as the decision to call the game like it's been called this preseason, Goodell decision to allow this is just plain dumb..there has to be a level of common sense as to what is normal physical contact when engaged in route..just from a leverage standpoint, balance, there has to be some leeway..

 

Why is this the new cause the NFL even wants to fight for? What sparked this insane enforcement? Peyton getting shut the eff out by Seattle in the Superbowl?

 

As a team that doesn't care about being balanced and willing to pass 100% of the time if the defense dares us to it helps us big time because this just further increases the value of the passing game and decreases the value of the running game.

It'll also help us on defense for the same reasons, we're not worried about stopping the run as much as stopping the pass. If teams are willing to take less value by running against our "weak" run defense then go right ahead. Plus the style of pass defense we play helps us too.

If fact, I would say we're ahead of the curve and we're already set up to take advantage of these rules on both sides of the ball more than any other team in the league.

Having said that I hate it and its ruining the game. You won't be able to celebrate great defensive plays anymore because half of them will turn into first downs anyway. A bunch of offensive records will probably fall this season alone. The NFL is about to become the arena league 2.0, and that sucks.

 

I was thinking about this yesterday and I think it helps a QB like Tannehill. Tannehill often hesitates to throw to a receiver until he is very clearly visually open, as opposed to trusting that the guy will be open by the time the ball gets there, or forcing it in (which in some ways is good, as it reduces INTS, but also costs us missed opportunities).

If these rules mean defenders start to give WRs more breathing room, it helps guys like Tannehill who like to see more separation around a receiver before throwing it to him.

 

It is going to slow the game down and make it unwatchable on many levels.

So whether it hurts or helps The Dolphins remains to be seen, but it will hurt the fan experience.

 

I would say that so far this preseason it has hurt us more than help us, so I'm not optimistic.

And I find the claim that the coaches want more of this doubtful, but more importantly irrelevant. Far and away the most common adjective I've heard from the fans since the uptick in calls is "unwatchable". The thing that has made the NFL what it is today is how great it is to watch on TV. I can't think of any better way to kill the sport than to take that away. And for a league that wants to be international, it seems to be ignoring the number 1 complaint international fans have about the sport, that it stops so often. How is increasing the number of stops in play a good thing for those ambitions? I don't want to see more of the refs. I want to see less of them. I want them to be as invisible as possible.

 

I don't have a problem the NFL enforcing illegal contact. I have a problem with all contact being illegal. Every team will be victimized.

 

As others have said, it is going to hurt the fans.

Also, I can't imagine anything ref-related helping the Dolphins, regardless of style of play.

 

wasn't the last round of "point of emphasis" after a superbowl loss by the other darling - Tom Brady?

 

After watching one or two preseason games I was hoping I just caught the anomaly, but then I realized this new emphasis meant all of the games were looking the same. I love football as much as any of you guys but I did think to myself, this is damn near unwatchable. It was painful watching several plays in a row end in a penalty. In my opinion offenses were in great shape already and the game is only growing in popularity, it's really not needed. I have a feeling we'll see a decrease in the regular season because the league doesn't want to drive fans away and seeing 20+ penalties a game isn't helping the fan experience.

In terms of our team I think it helps us due to the amount we passed last year and don't think that changes drastically with a new coordinator. We also know the deep ball to Wallace wasn't completed as much as we'd like last year and maybe more of those routes end up with a penalty if nothing else.

 

To me it's already become fairly unwatchable. For the first time in 11 years I won't have Sunday Ticket. I just couldn't take it anymore after witnessing so many sequences like this:

TD - review - commercial break during review
XP - commercial break
Kickoff - Touchback - Commercial break
2 plays - timeout - commercial break
2 more plays - challenge flag - review - commercial break

It just became maddening to watch. I'll have my redzone going on Sundays from here on out. It's going to suck not watching every single snap from the 'phins for the first time in over a decade, but the product just isn't the same. And more TV time spent having officials over-explain penalties isn't going to make it any better.

 

It won't hurt us. I mean we play the Pats twice a year but we always get screwed by the refs when we play them and this was before the crackdown. I don';t see any difference there. When you get penalized for trying to recover a fumble, then you're already getting effed by the refs.

As far as making it unwatchable, I cannot stress this enough, DVR the game. Let it record the first half, then start watching from the beginning. You skip through all the BS quickly and easily. Better yet, record the whole thing and go do something with your wife/significant other. You'll score major spouse points and still get to watch the game but also be able to skip the stuff that sucks. Win-win-win.

 

Hmm. I always thought Maynard was a fan and preferred to watch the games with you.

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that does score major brownie points, even moreso if you have children. However, there's definitely an element of drama IMO to watching the game live rather than recording it. I try to handpick 2-3 sundays in each fall to spend with family to go apple picking and other stuff. one of the benefits of the early bye-week I guess.

 

Maynard is not the piece of *** you marry. That's like getting groceries in a Ferrari.

 

Well it is true Maynard is quite the reckless power bottom.

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Yup. Just the other day a talking head said one of goodell's pet peeves is long games and these touch penalties will result in close to 4 hour gms. b/c of tv programming it's not gonna happen.

 

Another Peyton Manning rule change, first 2004 after Irsay complained when they lost to the pats. Now again after they couldn't do anything against the physical DB play in the Super Bowl.

 

Regardless of what they're claiming, I think the league will almost certainly cave towards watchability when push comes to shove.

 

This is not a popular sports worldwide partially due to the length of the game and because the game has too many interruptions .Too much stopping and starting is the complaint .If the NFL pretends to expand worldwide they need to do the opposite .Shorten the game and make it more fluid by removing time delaying stops IMO.

 

I thought the impetus behind this "emphasis" was basically the Seahawks and teams like them that were basically committing illegal contact on a regular basis with the belief that they wouldn't call it all the time. Those teams were correct and now the league is pushing back. The unfortunate side effect is going to be the constant interruption to play on the field.

 

Exactly. I want the rules set up to duplicate the SB experience as much as possible. What the Seahawks were "getting away with" was the perfect balance imo. So if they need to change the rules to encourage that more then thats the way to go. Not this BS we're seeing now.

 

Right, but teams will adjust. At least the good ones will. I think overall more stringent penalty calls will not result in more stops in play.

To be honest, I find the NFL unwatchable more than ever. But that isn't about officiating. More about economics and the new CBA.

 

If they keep calling that BS on clean pass breakups like Will Davis' bogus call, I will seriously question my loyalty to this sport.

 

Personally I have never understood why so many penalties were called called for certain rule violations in the preseason and and once the regular season started, the ref's were reluctant to throw a flag when the rule was broken.

Either it is a good rule and should be enforced every time a player violates this rule or there shouldn't be a rule to begin with,if it is only going to be enforced in preseason and few times during the regular season.

There are a lot of new rules which have been enacted which makes it harder to be a defensive back in the NFL. I don't like a lot of these new rules, but as long as they have these rules, they need to be enforced every week by every referee crew.

 

Honestly, I can't say if it helps or hurts. It comes down to coaching and the discipline of each team to play fairly. While you think it would help individuals like Wallace who can blow past anyone at will, he was grabbed on that deep route the other night and no flag was thrown. So even though tougher officiating on paper sounds good, the refs still have to see the penalties in order to enforce them.

So really, I don't think it will have any impact long-term...although the yellow will be flying in week 1.