Too much offense in NFL right now?

[newlander]

I feel that way watching the games lately. I love watching my Cowboys light up people: don't get me wrong. But N.England, IndyDallas, and GBay are having such an easy time of it........I just miss the hitting and good defense of the old days. I started watching Cowboys football in 1977 and the defense in the league then was.......stellar. Nowadays the offensive athletes and schemes are just ahead of the defenses. Not to mention the rules. God, if you touch a receiver, it's a penalty for a 1st down 90% of the time. It just isn't right. If I want to watch basketball on a football field, I'll watch the arena league: or even college ball. Still love my Cowboys, just hope at some point the competition committee let's them play defense again: the old school way.:starspin

 

[Oh_Canada]

I agree to some extent. Offense is great and a thing of beauty when it is done right, but some of these ticky tack fouls on the defense are ludicrous. You have defensive players pulling up because they are terrified of hitting someone resulting in a major penalty or fine, corners getting pass interference flags for rubbing shoulders with the receivers and safeties flagged because a receiver ran into them....it's getting to be a little one-sided in the favour of the offense.

 

[theogt]

Not when we have a good one.

If for some reason we didn't have a good one, I'd agree.

 

[sago1]

Would like to point out that only Pats & Cowboys are lighting it up although GB is also doing a good job. Colts are doing good but certainly not lighting it up like the first 2. Also believe that these 4 teams have the highest rated QBs and that has to be taken into account.

Too many teams, try at least half, have no QB who can play good and thus aren't going anywhere. With a good/great QB, your in the hunt. W/o that QB, life in the NFL will be hard for any team.

 

[CowboyBlog]

I agree but what are you going to do?

The players in the NFL are so much stronger and faster these days. Some of these new rules have to be in place to keep people from getting killed.

Get rid of the steroids would be a first step.

 

[marchetta]

I agree but what are you going to do?

The players in the NFL are so much stronger and faster these days. Some of these new rules have to be in place to keep people from getting killed.

Get rid of the steroids would be a first step.

2nd Step) Bring back the shutdown CB. The CB position has been legislated away. With today's rules, it's almost impossible to be a shutdown CB.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

I'm with you 100%. The league wants offense, and it's sad. IMO it's very shallow for the powers that be to assume that more scoring = a better game.

But I guess since these are the rules, we'll just have to win this way.

 

[Kangaroo]

I'm with you 100%. The league wants offense, and it's sad. IMO it's very shallow for the powers that be to assume that more scoring = a better game.

But I guess since these are the rules, we'll just have to win this way.

The problem is more offense is a better game for corporate dollar at 50k PSL season tickets and the all mighty TV dollar. It is not about us the hardcore fan it is all about the casual fan and the big money that comes with it.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

I feel that way watching the games lately. I love watching my Cowboys light up people: don't get me wrong. But N.England, IndyDallas, and GBay are having such an easy time of it........I just miss the hitting and good defense of the old days. I started watching Cowboys football in 1977 and the defense in the league then was.......stellar. Nowadays the offensive athletes and schemes are just ahead of the defenses. Not to mention the rules. God, if you touch a receiver, it's a penalty for a 1st down 90% of the time. It just isn't right. If I want to watch basketball on a football field, I'll watch the arena league: or even college ball. Still love my Cowboys, just hope at some point the competition committee let's them play defense again: the old school way.:starspin

It wasnt that long ago where we only score about 17 pts a game.

Which do you prefer?



In 2004 you probably posted... "wow I remember when we used to score almost 30 points a game"

 

[links18]

Ask Baltimore Ravens fans if there is too much offense in the league. Seriously though, since 50 percent of NFL marketing is about fantasy right now, the league is going to do whatever it can to encourage more offense. But yes, the NFl is starting to look like college football, where nobody plays defense.

 

[rlgiv]

too much offense. I don't know how they can fix it. Allow more contact and the defender can mug the reciever. Anything less and the reciever is nearly uncoverable even if their is a large gap in the caliber of athletes. If they knew I'm sure they would fix it.

 

[Biggems]

In the early 90s....the Cowboys, Niners, Bills, and Oilers all had potent, high-scoring offenses. Once GB got Brett Favre, they started putting up lots of points as well, so that made 5 teams.

It hasn't changed much....every year, you will have a handful of high-scoring offenses and a handful of pitiful-scoring offenses.....and then the rest of the league will be somewhere in the middle, just plain average.

 

[03EBZ06]

There are 18 teams that are averaging less than 21 points per game and only 4 teams are averaging 28 points or more in a game.

Do we really want to see 14-7 games?

 

[CowboyMike]

Yup. The rules on covering recievers now is a big part of it. It just gives the recievers way too big of an advantage now.

Not too much offense, but too much PASSING going on. Offenses are gravitating away from the run way too much for my taste. I miss the smash mouth football.

 

[Kangaroo]

Yup. The rules on covering recievers now is a big part of it. It just gives the receivers way too big of an advantage now.

Not too much offense, but too much PASSING going on. Offenses are gravitating away from the run way too much for my taste. I miss the smash mouth football.

Yep in the old days the run and shot QB's would be broken in half now a days the QB have little to fear unlike QB of old days so the chuck and duck works because the QB does not get destroyed like they use to.

Part of the reason for the change is also the investment they put in players. We are talking about 60 Million dollar QB's that ain't no chump change and 30 mill guaranteed even if the QB gets injured and never plays again. That is also the issue just way to much money involved on both sides.

 

[BrassCowboy]

I feel that way watching the games lately. I love watching my Cowboys light up people: don't get me wrong. But N.England, IndyDallas, and GBay are having such an easy time of it........I just miss the hitting and good defense of the old days. I started watching Cowboys football in 1977 and the defense in the league then was.......stellar. Nowadays the offensive athletes and schemes are just ahead of the defenses. Not to mention the rules. God, if you touch a receiver, it's a penalty for a 1st down 90% of the time. It just isn't right. If I want to watch basketball on a football field, I'll watch the arena league: or even college ball. Still love my Cowboys, just hope at some point the competition committee let's them play defense again: the old school way.:starspin

I agree with you 100%. Today's rules are way too unbalanced towards the offense.
The cornerbacks are almost worthless as they cannot even look at a WR the wrong way until the WR has basically caught the ball. Too much is called P.I.
Quarterbacks are way too protected. You cannot hit them above the shoulders or below the waist???? I may be understanding to obvious blatant hits, but come on.... Vinnie Testaverde said it best when he said quarterbacks wear pads too. Refs have to back off on throwing the flag on defenders for every little thing.
Another thing and it really has little effect on the outcome on the game but since I am on this is the defense induced false starts which gets the defenders penalized. How is it that defenders do not have to lineup on the line of scrimmage, like the Oline must do, can prance around in a stand up position and not think this may make the oline a little jumpy while those defenses that lineup in normal line stance even move slightly be penalized for enticing the oline to move prematurely?

This all falls in the same ballfield as the NFL taking al the fun out of the league when they make all these rules limiting celebrations, but that is another post altogether.

 

[Sarge]

The league wants offense and has changed the rules accordingly Belechik is taking full advantage of it and frankly, so are we.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Do we really want to see 14-7 games?

It was that way for years.

 

[Sarge]

It was that way for years.

...and I had no problem whatsoever with those defensive games. It was like the scores (when they did happen) meant so much more.

 

[lspain1]

I agree but what are you going to do?

The players in the NFL are so much stronger and faster these days. Some of these new rules have to be in place to keep people from getting killed.

Get rid of the steroids would be a first step.

CowboyBlog makes a great point here. Rules have been added to favor the passing game and a number of rules have been added to protect players...particularly the QBs and receivers. Did you notice the personal foul flag on Demarcus Ware on Thanksgiving? With today's rules in place how many more years could Aikman have played?

I'm not tossing rocks here, but these rules and changes are what made Parcell's approach to the game obsolete. The rule changes have placed a huge premium on the QB position (see many "bus drivers" winning lately?).

I don't think we'll see the clock turned back.