I'm sitting here watching the Bengals v Skins and AJ Greene was completely wrapped up on a Slant route by a CB long, long before the ball got to him. I mean both arms around him, hugging him. Holding before the ball is in the air and DPI once its in the air.
No flag.
I think back to last nights game and that Offensive Holding call on Marpet on that big run by Doug. That was, in effect, about a 23 yard penalty. Marpet had the guy blocked completely. The guy is out of the play. Marpet's hands are inside the frame. The guy flails sideways to the ground like a flopping soccer player as Doug runs by him some 7 yards away. Draws a phantom holding call as a ref calls "what he thinks he sees"...not what he sees.
This sort of nonsense is game-changing in real games where it counts. The NFL has added so much subjective nonsense into its officiating paradigm that it is really damaging the legitimacy of a lot of game outcomes; legitimacy in this case meaning "the agency of the teams/players primarily/exclusively driving the outcomes."
- Random toggle of "yeah, we're not going to call illegal contact on Seattle or New England because they do it all the time" or "let's randomly let them play for the first 3 quarters and THEN we'll start calling illegal contact in the 4th."
- Hit on a Defenseless Receiver.
- Inconsistency on enforcing what exactly a catch is (2 feet and control to the ground means all kinds of things depending on the crew).
- OPI
- DPI
- Offensive Holding.
All of these aspects of NFL officiating really has to be cleaned up or streamlined so the cognitive workload of NFL officials is scaled downward. Because as of now, these guys just cannot effectively and consistently do their jobs. And its been significantly affecting game outcomes for the last several years (and its trending even worse).
