Cory's Corner: The NFL must restore competitive balance
We all know that the NFL is in love with offense.
It has made rule changes that swell scoring and tax defenses.
Yet, this season has been interesting. Many defensive backs — Green Bay’s included — have been getting away with physical play. In 2004, the NFL tightened the screws on illegal contact, pass interference and defensive holding.
Defenses are allowed to be physical with receivers — just as long as its within the five-yard window. But that’s the thing, how many times have you seen defensive backs or even linebackers, mauling pass catchers?
Jordy Nelson leads all receivers with 12 touchdowns, and has made a great argument to be a Pro Bowl starter. Yet, I counted at least three times when one of his hands was held last week at Chicago.
Saints receiver Brandin Cooks is arguably the quickest player in the league. He routinely gets taken off his route — after the five-yard window — by defensive backs that push, hold or grab.
I bring this up because the playoffs are 15 days away. Nothing beats a one-and-done atmosphere, and that of course means that defenses will try just about anything just short of using brass knuckles.
The reason we came this far in the first place was because the Patriots were getting away with too much. Bill Belichick knew that the only way he could beat the Peyton Manning-led Colts was by beating up the receivers and disrupting the timing. The avalanche of backlash started, which led to the offensive renaissance.
The defense is at a disadvantage. It doesn’t know where the offensive player is going to go and now we’ve come to a place where it’s beginning to be OK for defenses to play catch up by bending the rules.
I’m not in favor of the current NFL that has a striking resemblance to the Arena Football League. Quarterbacks are protected and given free rein. Hitting a quarterback nowadays makes defensive coordinators scared of an impending 15-yard penalty.
It’s time for the league to decide what it wants to be. Does it want to be a shotgun-spraying offensive fireworks show or a defensive battle that includes tough play where every yard is earned?
With the ever-present threat of concussions, tough play has been downplayed. But the unit that got stung the most by this has been the defense.
If the NFL truly wants this offensive style of play, then it has to start being more consistent with defensive fouls. You could call a penalty each and every time, but that’s not what I’m asking for.
Just call enough to restore competitive balance.
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Cory Jennerjohn is a graduate from UW-Oshkosh and has been in sports media for over 15 years. He was a co-host on "Clubhouse Live" and has also done various radio and TV work as well. He has written for newspapers, magazines and websites. He currently is a columnist for CHTV and also does various podcasts. He recently earned his Masters degree from the University of Iowa. He can be found on Twitter: @Coryjennerjohn
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Comments (15)
4thand1
December 24, 2016 at 06:56 am
The NFL will never be consistent with referees until they pay them as a full time employee. The bottom line is, they're cheap. If an official is being paid well and keeps screwing up, his job would be in jeopardy. Hence he wouldn't want to lose a really good paying job. They can pay Goodell a enormous salary, but skimp on people who are more important than him.
jeremyjjbrown
December 24, 2016 at 07:26 am
The NFL needs to make holding, PI and illegal contact reviewable. They can't determistically define what a catch in or out of the endzone is, so what is the difference? It's the only way to force any type of consistency.
barutanseijin
December 24, 2016 at 07:36 am
More reviewable calls -> more "review" ad breaks -> longer games where what happens on the field matters less. Kids don't have the patience for NFL games as it is.
mrtundra
December 24, 2016 at 08:36 am
Throw in the Ed Hochuli crew and a 3 hour game approaches the 4 hour mark everytime.
Since'61
December 24, 2016 at 08:22 am
Cory - there are a number of factors that would be necessary to restore competitive balance. First, how do you define competitive balance? Are you defining as the defense having a better chance at stopping the offense or are you defining it as all teams going between 7-9 and 9-7 during the regular season, or both? I'm assuming that you are defining it as the defense having a better chance to stop the offense. As far as the league goes, with Goodall in charge, this league will do whatever it takes to make more money for the owners, for now, that means more offense. To achieve better competitive balance, first the league needs a higher level of play. The on field product is declining rapidly and getting worse every season. Look at Randall against the Bears. His fundamentals were awful. A player should not even be drafted into the league with his lack of fundamentals and now after 2 seasons in the league. What are the coaches doing? How does that happen? I wouldn't have been allowed to play on my high school team if I played DB like that and in those days high school teams only through the ball out of desperation. Randall is just one example. You see poor technique and poor play on every team in just about every game. The other issue is officiating. Again getting worse by the week. There is no consistency even within the same game by the same crew. I'm not sure what the answer is here. There is no guarantee that full time officials would be any better. And what would they do when they are not at a game? Watch even more film than they do already. They make about $100K now, how much more would you pay a full time official? I don't see a resolution in the near future because the money is rolling in, most casual fans prefer the open game with high scores and they don't know what they are watching most of the time anyway. Regardless, it's not like the league cares about the fans anyway, as long as their money is good. At some point, the games will become unwatchable and if the money flow slows down then we might see some positive changes. For now we must endure or move on. I'm already down to just watching GB games and maybe a few minutes of another game here or there. Thanks, Since '61
Rossonero
December 24, 2016 at 08:42 am
Well said. I think the on field product is worse since this new CBA means less practice time for players. It's killing their development....meaning longer time for draft picks to blossom...as COW correctly (for once) pointed out about 5 weeks ago, this does not bode well for a draft and develop team like the Packers.
dobber
December 24, 2016 at 12:25 pm
" First, how do you define competitive balance? Are you defining as the defense having a better chance at stopping the offense or are you defining it as all teams going between 7-9 and 9-7 during the regular season, or both?"
Bingo. To me, competitive balance means between teams, not between the units on the field. Offense vs. defense is about game play, not competitive balance...and about preference.
Rossonero
December 24, 2016 at 08:38 am
I agree with you that the scale has been tipped too far one way.
Unfortunately, offense is king when it comes to TV ratings and player safety. While defense has been legislated out to some extent, a focus on fundamental tackling is more important than ever before.
The NFL is already tightly regulated. Why more TV reviews? Viewership is already down this year and NFL executives are researching why. The last thing we need are more stoppages for reviews. The reality is there is variation in calls from crew to crew of refs.
The NFL needs to justify rule changes better too. I feel like they are just changing to change stuff at this point. I understand that the competition committee is a cross functional team of coaches, players, executives, etc., but the fact that viewership is down should tell them that maybe they've changed too many things and need to settle down.
Handsback
December 24, 2016 at 09:39 am
4th and one and since 61 have said it best. The league will change when people like Since 61 and myself quit watching games that don't involve our favorite teams.
Hematite
December 26, 2016 at 08:09 am
If it wasn't for the Packers I wouldn't have the patience to watch any NFL games.
Too many ads, too many flags!
I used to watch every game I could, those days are over.
Sad!
Tundraboy
December 24, 2016 at 09:45 am
At same time I have never seen more blatant uncalled OPI calls than the past few years. We could call that the Michael Irvin rule.
lebowski
December 24, 2016 at 10:02 am
Jordy himself got away with one of the most egregious ones I've seen a couple games ago.
Ferrari Driver
December 24, 2016 at 11:20 am
Personally, I like the level of play; but then again, I like enjoy watching the Badgers and other college games as well.
When the teams in the league (NFL or NCAA) are somewhat balanced they are enjoyable and we can pull for out favorite to pull out a victory or at least see an exciting game.
In other words, I'm easily entertained by watching the game played. I can live with more defense and I can enjoy it as it stands.
What I didn't like this year was the kneeling by some players during the playing of our National Anthem. I strongly felt the commissioner should have banned those pregame demonstrations which many of us viewed as disrespectful to our country and the thousands of heroic men/women who lost their lives defending us. And I will admit it did affect my level of interest in the games.
dobber
December 24, 2016 at 12:21 pm
"Personally, I like the level of play; but then again, I like enjoy watching the Badgers and other college games as well."
I love power football...always have. I love teams to line it up and try to push each other around. I can't stand to watch much college football anymore, mostly because so many teams have gone spread/R-O football which--to me--minimizes team play and reduces the game to 1-2 second bits. It's the NBA creeping into football, and it's creeping into the NFL (no matter what DPF says). This is what these players are learning at the college level and they just don't have as much time to train in NFL offenses.
As for competitive balance, the game is the game, but it's also a business. What does the market want? It wants big plays and lots of spikes...Maybe it's fantasy football driving the popularity of the game. Maybe it's the NBA slam-dunk mentality creeping into other sports. Why is MLB viewership lagging? Because teams are built to win based on the 3-run HR. This means a lot of Ks and a lot of dead viewing time. Splashy plays...that's what sports has turned into and, frankly, why professional soccer has never really caught on in America.
LayingTheLawe
December 25, 2016 at 09:08 pm
The number of people who want to watch a 10- 3 defensive gem versus a 41 - 38 shootout is pretty small. Because of that the NFL does indeed care about the balance of offense and defense and what they want is to make sure it stays tipped to the offense. If some new revelation occurs like the 46 defense that takes scoring down in the NFL, you can be sure they will adjust rules to get scoring up.