Packers battling penalty onslaught

I’m of two minds when it comes to talking about the refs and penalties and everything that goes into officiating a professional football game.

On the one hand, officiating an NFL game is a massively complex undertaking. Have you read the NFL rulebook? Have you tried? A page turner it is not. The section for roughing the passer alone is 950 words. I know this for a fact because I checked after Sunday night’s impromptu roughing the passer festival, and now I’m actually surprised it isn’t called more considering the broad leeway officials have. It’s genuinely hard to know what to call and what not to call.

But on the other hand, shouldn’t it be…I don’t know…better than this? Every game is a flag fest and every play takes place under a looming yellow specter. Did a cool thing just happen? Better hold your breath until you see whether or not there’s laundry on the field. You never know when the capricious gaze of black-and-white striped justice will turn your way.

I know there’s plenty of data out there about the increase of penalties, but if you’ll allow me to get a little more squishy about it than just looking at the numbers, it feels bad out there. The vibe, as they say, is off. There’s little reason to assume any game you watch is going to unfold without at least one or two completely arbitrary penalties. Discussing any game inevitably hinges on what penalties were or were not called. It’s not a fun way to watch a game!

And I don’t know how you fix it. The genie is out of the bottle, in a sense, because you can’t just go back to not throwing as many flags. We’ve already seen what draws a penalty and what doesn’t. Walking it back now is just setting a different paradigm. That might be the only way, though. If nothing’s getting called, everything could feel less arbitrary. That’s small comfort in an NFL landscape increasingly ruled by seemingly random flags.

Packers lead league in roughing penalties; Matt LaFleur would like more equity | Packers News ($)

A subtext to the Packers’ roughing the passer woes is the fact that none of their opponents seem to get flagged for doing the same thing.

No. 8 Is Coming Back; Eight Reasons Why Josh Jacobs Must Save Run Game | Sports Illustrated

Josh Jacobs could be back in the lineup on Sunday.

6 standouts from Packers’ Week 6 win over the Cowboys | Packers Wire

Plenty ot choose from!

U2 to headline halftime of NFL’s first-ever Thanksgiving Eve Gameday live on Netflix | NFL.com

Not only will U2 appear at halftime of the Packers/Rams Thanksgiving Eve, we found out today that Jay-Z will headline this year’s Super Bowl halftime show. It’s a big week for past-their-prime musical acts!

Calls of the Game: Matthew Golden’s touchdown | Packers.com

Never a bad time to listen to Wayne and Larry call a big play.

Humorous campaign signs propel ‘unqualified’ man to city council | UPI

This is the mindset I want from my local city council.

Packers discussion in the Feed

A bold suggestion! What if the Packers actually did catch the ball? Frankly it’s amazing they’re putting up as many passing yards as they are despite the stone hands epidemic going around.

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