I rant on this all the time, but IMO it's the concerted effort by the league to encourage offense. Blatant holding is basically allowed while touching a WR six yards down the field or a D-lineman getting his hands momentarily on an O-lineman's facemask is a free first down. Ticky-tack contact down the field can give an offense 30, 40 or more yards on a pass that never would have been completed. The list goes on.
There's a reason scoring in the NFL has exploded the last few years. You can go back and see the minutes from the post Pats/Rams Superbowl year where Rich McKay tells the competition committee that scoring was up just like they had hoped would happen when they changed enforcement of the contact rule. That was when Peyton Manning and Culpepper went berserk... And just a few years later, Tom Brady, Tony Romo, and others did the same. Coincidence? Of course not.
Most of the lower-scoring games you see later in the year have some kind of weather component with rain and/or strong winds. But in today's NFL, in early season games when the weather is nice and players aren't yet beat up, you almost can't stop a good offense that's on its game. All the rules are set up to help them more and more, because the league thinks that we simpleminded fans believe higher-scoring games equal better games.
But we're not all Tony Kornheiser. Some of us hate pinball-like scoreboards and love defensive football. And as one of those people, the orchestrated effort to change the game and create more offense makes me sick... But it's the way it is today.
