Jumbo Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/10-takeaways-from-the-2014-nfl-season/ar-AA90izn Following what has to be considered one of the best Super Bowls of all-time, the 2014 NFL season has concluded. As teams set their eyes on the offseason and look to dethrone the defending champion New England Patriots, it’s time to look back on the season that was. <edit> 1. Tom Brady is a Cut Above Imagine if the Seattle Seahawks were able to get that final yard to win Super Bowl XLIX. It would have been Russell Wilson’s second Lombardi Trophy in three years—just one less than Brady had entering the Super Bowl. New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers also have two Super Bowl titles to their name. If we’re looking solely at overall team success and the ultimate goal of each franchise, Brady was just one step ahead of some of the other successful quarterbacks in the NFL. That changed big time when New England’s defense—led by Malcolm Butler—stoned Seattle at the goal line to win the Super Bowl earlier this month. By virtue of his four-touchdown performance, Brady has now matched Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana for the most Super Bowl wins for a quarterback in NFL history (four). That’s a far cry from being just one title ahead of two other active signal callers. It also enables us to move on from the debate about who is the most successful quarterback of our generation and into the larger-scale conversation regarding the best quarterback of all-time—a conversation Brady is surely in. 2. NFL and NFL Players Association Need More Leadership From the entire Ray Rice situation and perceived cover-up from the NFL to the league’s handling of the Adrian Peterson child abuse case, this past season was nothing more than a dumpster fire for the suits in New York City. This doesn’t even take into account issues with the personal conduct and drug policies within the league itself. As the season progressed, the NFL even set into motion a new personal conduct policy without seeking input from the NFL Players Association. To say that there is a likely labor strife on the horizon would be an understatement. Placing all this blame on Roger Goodell would also be a major mistake. Sure he has overstepped his bounds as the league’s commissioner, but it’s important to remember that Goodell is practicing under a Collective Bargaining Agreement that was signed off by NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, who has failed his union members at every turn. Smith wants to publicly chastise Goodell, which is fine. But he might want to take a look in the mirror and understand that his seemingly weak approach to negotiations back in 2011 has played a major role in the issues we see today. <edit> 4. Officiating and League Rules Need to be Overhauled From the archaic “Calvin Johnson rule” to an inability to actually review penalties, the 2014 season was defined by horrendous officiating. While not necessarily the fault of the officials on the field, things need to change. In the playoffs alone, we saw the Dallas Cowboys impacted by two controversial calls. We don’t need to get into too much detail regarding those specific plays, especially considering that they were controversial enough to draw a response from the league itself. On a macro level, the NFL made a decision years ago to take the human element out of officiating by implementing the current instant replay system. If that’s the ultimate goal of the league, there’s no reason NOT to review penalties. More than that, the league needs to modernize some of its rules in order to cater to an athlete it could have scarcely imagined just a few years back. Hopefully the competition committee takes these issues seriously in the offseason and amends the rules accordingly. <rest at link> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 I liked #6. Injured played a major role down the stretch. Ya don't say?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjfootballer Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 The CFL reviews pass interference calls that coaches can challenge. It doesn't take long during their games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vilandil Tasardur Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 I want to do away with all coaches challenges. Is it close? Review it. I don't think the coaches need a challenge at all. It could even be done the way turnovers and scores are, with an unofficial review before the next play. If the refs on the field think it was close enough to warrant a 2nd look, they can stop play for 30 seconds while they get confirmation from upstairs. A small amount of the time this will interrupt hurry up and such, but it would be worth it ti place getting the call right in the officials hands and not the coaches. I'd also love to see defenseless receiver calls and all of that be assessed as fines and suspensions AFTER the game only. It is VERY important to remove these kinds of hits from the game. But it is also VERY important to not cost a defense 15 yards and an automatic first down every time there is a questionable call that looks violent. Let the players play and deal with it afterwards. Finally, defensive holding needs to be a ten yard penalty without an automatic first down. Why should defensive holding be any different than offensive holding? March off the ten yards and replay the down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 I think the NFL needs to get rid of alot of the automatic 1st down penalties. Pass interference should be like college. Shouldn't be a spot foul. 15 yards is plenty. For a call that is a judgement call most of the time, it shouldn't have a huge effect on the game like it currently does. Illegal contact is fine with just 5 yds. A litle bump of a WR on their route and there's an automatic 1st down? Seems ridiculous. Sure, keep the penalty, but just mark off 5yds. Hands to the face as well. Why is that an automatic 1st down? Just doesn't make sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vilandil Tasardur Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 I think the NFL needs to get rid of alot of the automatic 1st down penalties. Pass interference should be like college. Shouldn't be a spot foul. 15 yards is plenty. For a call that is a judgement call most of the time, it shouldn't have a huge effect on the game like it currently does. Illegal contact is fine with just 5 yds. A litle bump of a WR on their route and there's an automatic 1st down? Seems ridiculous. Sure, keep the penalty, but just mark off 5yds. Hands to the face as well. Why is that an automatic 1st down? Just doesn't make sense. Yeah I'm on board. I'm not one of those "defenses need to be able to play" guys who thinks that they should be ab;e to decapitate receivers. But I think a penalty is a penalty. March them forward and keep playing. I don't see why so many penalties need to be automatic first downs. There are only very few offensive penalties that result in a loss of down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Yeah I'm on board. I'm not one of those "defenses need to be able to play" guys who thinks that they should be ab;e to decapitate receivers. But I think a penalty is a penalty. March them forward and keep playing. I don't see why so many penalties need to be automatic first downs. There are only very few offensive penalties that result in a loss of down. Agreed. It's getting harder and harder for teams to play physical defense anymore. Every penalty benefits the offense way more than it helps the defense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vilandil Tasardur Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Agreed. It's getting harder and harder for teams to play physical defense anymore. Every penalty benefits the offense way more than it helps the defense. It seems to me like there's only two ways to play defense in the NFL. Ultra conservative, bend but don't break defense where you force teams to execute perfectly over and over in the hopes they'll make a mistake or else you hold them to a field goal. Or, balls to the wall, get in their face and sell out at every opportunity for a turnover. Anything in the middle means you're giving up too many points without getting your offense enough extra scoring opportunities of their own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickyJ Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 I think the NFL needs to get rid of alot of the automatic 1st down penalties. Pass interference should be like college. Shouldn't be a spot foul. 15 yards is plenty. For a call that is a judgement call most of the time, it shouldn't have a huge effect on the game like it currently does. Illegal contact is fine with just 5 yds. A litle bump of a WR on their route and there's an automatic 1st down? Seems ridiculous. Sure, keep the penalty, but just mark off 5yds. Hands to the face as well. Why is that an automatic 1st down? Just doesn't make sense. I don't watch college, so maybe I'm not getting the whole picture, but if the NFL were to mark off 15 yards for pass interference, it would be a major problem at the end of games when teams need to make long catches to tie or win. What happens if you're down by 3, lined up on your 30, 15 seconds left on the clock, and need to make a deep pass to get into field goal range? The receivers get mauled, and 15 yards tacked on. Still nowhere near field goal range, and not nearly enough time to get there before the game ends. A lot of the penalties need to be redone, but the yardage on pass interference is not one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjfootballer Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 Colleges deal with only getting 15 yards and manage to be able to move the ball in FG range. You want to get 50 yards, throw a 50 yard pass. Why should they get a 50 yard penalty? If you are on your 30, the penalty puts you at your 45. You'd only need 20 yards to get in FG range. I've always hated spot of foul PI. If not 15, I could do 20 for pro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 I don't watch college, so maybe I'm not getting the whole picture, but if the NFL were to mark off 15 yards for pass interference, it would be a major problem at the end of games when teams need to make long catches to tie or win. What happens if you're down by 3, lined up on your 30, 15 seconds left on the clock, and need to make a deep pass to get into field goal range? The receivers get mauled, and 15 yards tacked on. Still nowhere near field goal range, and not nearly enough time to get there before the game ends. A lot of the penalties need to be redone, but the yardage on pass interference is not one of them. But you're basically rewarding a team for just throwing a pass deep and hoping the DB bumps into the WR or something. If you want to get into FG, then earn it. Don't just have your QB throw up a prayer and hope for PI. There's no harm in just making it 15yds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsciambi Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 I think #10 is the one that bugs me the most. If there was ever a year to finally give a defensive player MVP again, this was it. They really ought to just rename it to best QB/RB of the year award. The last non QB or RB to win it was LT back in 1986. Almost 30 years ago. That's ridiculous. Worse, there's only been 3 players in the history of the league that have won it that weren't either position. The other two are Mark Moseley in 1982, and Alan Page in 1971. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost of Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 I think #10 is the one that bugs me the most. If there was ever a year to finally give a defensive player MVP again, this was it. They ought to rename it the Player of the Year, and then we won't be trying to parse out who was more valuable or not to a playoff team, a good playoff team, etc. JJ Watt was clearly the best player in football, and while QBs are important no other player was as valuable to a team. I had no idea he finished with over 20 sacks. FROM a 3-4 DEFENSIVE LINE position, that's extremely difficult to do, even though he may move around and be in a lot of 4-3 and nickel alignments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warhead36 Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Pass Interference needs to be looked at. It is WAY too punitive and WAY too impactful of a penalty. Games are literally decided by which team can get more PI calls or that one big PI call late to seal a win one way or another, which is ridiculous for a penalty that at least half the time is purely subjective. I think teams are literally gameplanning to win now by just lobbing balls into coverage trying to get that big PI to get a score. One thing I HATE is how WRs IMMEDIATELY turn to the refs and throw their arms up if there is even a slight bit of contact because they want the PI so bad. I wish they'd make a rule where if you throw your arms up complaining about PI, you get a 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. That crap is so annoying. It's like, forget trying to make a tough catch, lets just whine to the refs for free yardage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjfootballer Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 CFL has that penalty. Can't throw your hands up anymore looking for PI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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