Penalties All Around, Including On Raheem
August 27th, 2011
Joe doesn’t need to see a box score to know the Bucs had a dozen or so penalties against the Dolphins.
Ugly stuff. The Bucs racked up plenty of flags against New England last week, too.
This is all pretty bizarre from a team that was darn sharp and didn’t get many flags last year.
The dunderhead award tonight goes to Raheem Morris. After the Dolphins’ first touchdown, Raheem and co. threw the challenge flag, which drew a 15-yard penalty. Apparently, a new NFL rules says you can’t challenge any touchdown since they are all automatically reviewed in 2011.
Raheem and his staff weren’t vicitims of the asinine lockout. They got their paychecks and had a pile of time on their hands. Learning new rules should have been easy with all that time. Perhaps Raheem spent too much time talking about Napa valley with Merlot Joe Maddon this offseason.
Yeah, it’s just one mistake. But Joe knows the Bucs need to be sharp to make the darn playoffs.
Joe also as shaking his head at Jeremy Trueblood scoring an “illegal formation” penalty for not being on the line of scrimmage. The Bucs need to fix this sloppy stuff in a hurry.
August 28th, 2011 at 12:04 am
I didn’t see the Trueblood penalty but there are two ways it was called and one isn’t Trueblood’s fault. On one, if the is the last man on the line of scrimmage and the WR or TE split out wide of him isn’t on the line of scrimmage, the penalty is called on him. The other option is that his inside foot wasn’t lined up in close enough of a plane with Joseph’s outside foot and he was simply just a tad too far back. Olineman routinely do this and never get called, either way, I don’t like Trueblood much but even not seeing the penalty in question, I don’t think it is very bad.
August 28th, 2011 at 12:25 am
Here is what I don’t understand. If there are no longer coaches challenges, why does Raheem even have a challenge flag to throw. Aren’t they no longer needed?
August 28th, 2011 at 12:28 am
Mark:
There are coaches challenges, but there are certain plays that cannot be challenged (scoring plays being one such example).
Now, if you challenge a play that cannot be challenged, it’s 15 yards.
In other words, coaches need to bone up on the rule book.
August 28th, 2011 at 1:13 am
I believe the penalty was assessed on the kickoff, putting it at the 50. the ensuing kickoff landed on the ship. What a dumb penalty. Whats the purpose if the kicker is gonna kick it out of the end zone anyways? Kickoffs themselves are stupid now. I would bitch about having to do unnecessary wind sprints.
August 28th, 2011 at 5:00 am
The amount of the penalties was ridiculous but that being said it is not completely on the Bucs. I have the Dolphins broadcast down here in Miami where Keith Sims, Bob Griese, and Dick Stockton thought it was blatant that the officials were trying to call every little infraction to get the teams ready for the regular season. In the first half they all agreed that the officials had gone overboard and were calling many penalties that would not have been called under normal circumstances.
On a separate note, there was a punt in the first half that the Dolphins were flagged for too many men on the field and that was offset by the Bucs getting flagged for holding on the same play. I didn’t think that the holding penalty would have applied because the play never technically happened with 12 men on the field.
August 28th, 2011 at 5:49 am
So wait, why is throwing a challenge on an unchallengeable play a 15 yard penalty? Is that a new rule? Because I remember seeing plenty of times where a coach threw the flag only to have the officials tell him the play wasn’t reviewable, and no penalty was given.
August 28th, 2011 at 6:02 am
Brandon, watch the game before making comments dude. Dunderhead was lined up 3 yards OFF the line of scrimmage because he was getting beat badly around the edge. Trueblood screwed the pooch on that.
Richard, sometimes a coach can’t challenge a play because forward motion had been called or some other discretionary play and the coaches don’t know that; those rules haven’t changed. What has changed is this: any TD play AUTOMATICALLY get’s reviewed by the booth, IRREGARDLESS. Raheem challenging the play falls into the category of calling a timeout when you have no time outs remaining; the blockhead type of play!
The offensive play was sloppy. WAY too many penalties. No excuses.
August 28th, 2011 at 6:39 am
Just say regardless, irregardless makes you sound stupid especially when you are correcting everyone.
August 28th, 2011 at 7:58 am
Raheems flag didn’t matter…15 yards assessed on a kick-off that more than likely will go out of the end-zone anyway? It’s worth it.
August 28th, 2011 at 8:13 am
Bucfanjeff, I was going to say the same thing. It did not appear that the booth was going to review it, and they are now reviewing every scoring play. They still have to have it reviewed before the extra point is kicked for it to count. Morris slowed the game down, which is what the new penalty is designed to do. Coaches throw flags for plays all the time that cannot be reviewed, and the refs have to come to the side line to explain whyit cannot be reviewed. Coaches somtimes used it as a free short time out. Now, they will pay the price. If it was assessed after the kick I would agree Joe, but we were not lighting up kick returns anyway.
August 28th, 2011 at 8:42 am
Lucky, I watched a lot of the game, I just didn’t see that particular play. Obviously, from what you’ve stated, it was option B. Trueblood was a tiny bit too far back. All OTs do it, it is just rarely called. Like I said, I don’t like Trueblood, but I don’t have a problem for him getting called for a rarely called penalty in a preseason game.
August 28th, 2011 at 10:19 am
I meant the new penalty is suppose to keep coaches from throwing the flag to slow down the game.
August 28th, 2011 at 12:50 pm
@Stanglassman – Ahahah, that’s too funny
Now first of all, I haven’t seen the game yet, but I did see the play Raheem got his penalty on. Now I do agree with Joe that the coaches and everybody involved in the organization need to be sharp to make the playoffs. But it is a little confusing, because you would have thought that you can’t challenge on any play involving the goal line or the any play involving the boundaries of the touchdown area, not a spot in question 40 yards back downfield in the area of play that resulted in an ensuing touchdown. Clearly he wasn’t challenging wether Brandon Marshall crossed the goal line or made it into the endzone or anything of that nature. So I agree Raheem does need to be on top of it, but it was a little confusing until now. As you’ve watched all these preseason games so far, I haven’t seen that issue come up, and everyone on TV explaining these rules to us, made it seem as if the coaches couldn’t challenge any play around the TD area that resulted in a TD, not a play 50 yards back that results in a touchdown.
August 28th, 2011 at 12:54 pm
I HATE this part of the new rule. Basically what they’re saying is if they don’t deem something reviewable after a quick 5 second look at it…that they completely don’t allow the coach to MAKE them look at it.
This rule will affect a big TD at some point this season, mark my words.
August 28th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
Drawing the penalty was dumb on Raheem’s part, but even dumber was that the Dolphins kicked it through the end zone. Kicking off from the 50, you should pooch it or try to go onsides.
August 28th, 2011 at 2:15 pm
@ Joke – Good call