Tag: Fouls

Who was responsible for all of the penalties in Saints preseason Week 2?

Who was responsible for the penalties in the second Saints preseason game? The Saints came away with a win, but all that free yardage made it too close for comfort:

Penalties and preseason games go together like peanut butter and jelly, but it’s tough to believe many New Orleans Saints fans were satisfied by all of the fouls in their Week 2 exhibition win over the Los Angeles Chargers. The Saints were penalized 14 times for 141 yards (a couple of other infractions were declined), while the Chargers drew just 5 fouls for 26 yards.

Saints head coach Dennis Allen certainly wasn’t pleased, saying after the game that it’s an obvious area the team must clean up.

“I didn’t like the penalties, way too many, so that’s something we’ve got to get cleaned up,” Allen reflected, also pointing to the yards given up to Chargers quarterback Easton Stick and too many coverage busts on fourth down. “Look we won the game, and I’m pleased about that, but there is a ton of crap that needs to get cleaned up.”

The good news is that the Saints should have referees in attendance for practice this week; they didn’t practice with an officiating crew present all summer, taking the field with the zebras for the first time in two joint practices with the Chargers last week. While the Saints will not be hosting the Houston Texans for joint practices as planned, they should still have referees at the facility for the NFL-standard second week of work before the regular season starts in September.

But what about the penalties on Sunday night? Let’s break it down by each quarter and see if any patterns emerge.

NFL referee Brad Rogers assigned to Week 16 Saints-Browns game

NFL referee Brad Rogers has been assigned to Week 16’s Saints-Browns game. New Orleans is 2-4 in games Rogers has officiated as a ref:

Here’s another variable for Saturday’s New Orleans Saints game. They’re already preparing to play in hazardous elements with wind and snow in the forecast for Week 16’s kickoff with the Cleveland Browns, but they’ll also be dealing with referee Brad Rogers and his crew. Rogers’ crew was on hand for their loss to the Baltimore Ravens earlier this season.

Rogers was promoted to referee in 2019, and he’s since worked six Saints games in that capacity — with New Orleans going 2-4 with him on the field. They haven’t won a game that Rogers has officiated since the 2020 season, but it’s worth noting they haven’t won many games since the 2020 season regardless of the referee.

If you’re curious, Rogers’ crew averages 11.6 penalties per game, which ranks tenth in the NFL. Their most-frequently called fouls include offensive holding (2.0), false start (1.62), defensive pass interference (1.08), and ineligible downfield pass (1.00). How do those trends compare to the Saints and Browns?

The Browns have been fouled for offensive holding more than any other team this year (1.64 times per game); the Saints have been fouled the fourth-fewest times per game (0.79). However, New Orleans leads the league in false starts (1.71 flags per game) and Cleveland has the fifth-fewest such penalties per game (0.86). Both teams rank high in defensive pass interference fouls (the Saints have had 0.64 per game, the Browns are at 0.50) but neither of them have much history with ineligible downfield pass penalties.

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Who’s responsible for Saints leading the NFL in false start penalties?

The Saints lead the league in pre-snap penalties, specifically false starts. So who is responsible? Coaches deserve some blame, but there are plenty of repeat offenders:

Self-inflicted wounds have held the New Orleans Saints back all season, and they’ve manifested nowhere better than in penalties. Procedural fouls and pre-snap infractions have haunted the Saints every step of the way in 2022, and they still haven’t improved in recent weeks.

The Saints rank fourth in the league with 80 penalties and seventh in penalties per game (6.7), and they’ve been fouled more often for false starts (22, which leads the NFL) than anything else. Their second- and third-most common infractions are defensive holding (12) and offensive holding (10), which equal the number of false starts put together. This has been a unique problem for them.

So who is responsible? The coaching staff deserves a lot of blame for not picking up on this trend and taking action early on. It’s been a problem along the offensive line and at other position groups. Whatever they’ve tried in practice to work on it hasn’t taken effect. But the players are at fault too — especially repeat offenders. Here are all of the Saints players who have been fouled for false starts this season, :

Referee Shawn Hochuli assigned to Week 2 Saints-Bucs game

Referee Shawn Hochuli has been assigned to Week 2’s Saints game with the Buccaneers. New Orleans is 2-2 with Hochuli and his crew on hand:

Here’s something we’ll hope doesn’t become relevant on Sunday. NFL referee Shawn Hochuli and his crew have been assigned to Week 2’s game between the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, making it his fifth Saints game since being promoted to full-time head referee back in 2018. The Saints are 2-2 in games that Hochuli has worked, most recently seeing him and his crew in last year’s road win over the Seattle Seahawks.

Hochuli’s crew fouled the Saints 7 times for 90 penalty yards in that game, against 6 fouls and 53 yards on Seattle. That lined up with his trend on the year of penalizing home teams (107 fouls for 979 yards) less often than the visitors (116 flags for 1,030 yards). In their first game of the 2022 season, Hochuli and his officials worked a chaotic Bengals-Steelers tilt that saw a dozen flags fly: the visiting Steelers drew 8 penalties for 59 yards, whereas the hosting Bengals received 4 fouls and lost 27 yards.

So in theory that would be bode well for the Saints, but these things can fluctuate wildly on a game-by-game basis. New Orleans drew 8 penalty markers in their season-opener, with 6 of them being defensive fouls, ceding 99 yards; Tampa Bay on the hand received 5 fouls, losing just 25 yards. They’ll need to clean up some things (well, a lot of things, as Dennis Allen has repeated to both his players and the media) ahead of Week 2’s game, regardless of who the opponent and referee are. With just three full practices to work with in the days ahead, they’ve got their work cut out for them.

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Nadie se dio cuenta de que Yordan Alvarez tuvo cuatro fouls en su turno al bat

Yordan Alvarez, bateador de los Houston Astros, ha estado atorada en un bache últimamente. El bateador designado lleva seis hits en sus últimas 25 veces al bat y únicamente un homerun. Cuando a alguien con un swing tan poderoso le pasa esto, rara …

Yordan Alvarez, bateador de los Houston Astros, ha estado atorada en un bache últimamente.

El bateador designado lleva seis hits en sus últimas 25 veces al bat y únicamente un homerun. Cuando a alguien con un swing tan poderoso le pasa esto, rara vez quiere abandonar la caja de bateo. El deseo de salir con un batazo es demasiado fuerte.

Aún así, eso no explica cómo diablos fue posible que Alvarez tuviera cuatro strikes en un turno al bat este miércoles, pero el video no miente.

En la tercera entrada, con el abridor de los Boston Red Sox pichando desde el montículo, Alvarez tomó una curva y pareció strike, después tuvo foul en el siguiente lanzamiento y vio cómo otra curva llegó a la zona de strike. Pero Alvarez no abandonó la caja de bateo, el umpire no le dijo nada y Hill siguió pichando.

Traducción: Yordan Alvarez tuvo cuatro strikes al bat y ¿y simplemente nadie le dijo?

 

De acuerdo, el beisbol ha tenido una temporada muy larga y puede llegar a ser muy mundano, especialmente para pitchers veteranos como Hill, quienes ya están muy acomodados en sus rutinas. ¿Pero cómo fue posible que ni siquiera se dio cuenta que había hecho un ponche? Generalmente, los pitchers de la MLB saben cuando han ponchado a alguien. Hill ni se inmutó.

La presentación de MLB’s Gameday claramente mostraba esa jugada con una K, incluso cuando seguía en su turno al bat. Hill terminó con dos ponches oficiales.

 

vía MLB.com

 

No fue que en este juego faltaran strikes. Jose Urquidy, abridor de Houston, tuvo 10 strikes para empatar el récord más alto de su carrera y no conectó ningún hit contra Boston en ninguna de las seis entradas de una victoria de 6-1.

Sin embargo, no pueden culpar a Alvarez por haberse quedado en home, lo que quiere decir que la culpa la tienen Hill, el mánager de Boston Alex Cora y el umpire de home Jim Wolf. En cualquier caso, probablemente no sea la mejor señal para la MLB cuando un partido es tan aburrido que nadie se da cuenta cuando ya se hizo uno de los 27 outs.

 

Artículo traducido por Ana Lucía Toledo

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NBA Hot Take Cannon: Hand-checking is creeping in, fights don’t matter, and more

The rule change needs a rule change.

Welcome back to the Hot Take Cannon! Thank y’all for rocking with yerboi for another week.

It has been an absolutely wild week in the NBA from players complaining about things to players actually kind of, sort of fighting about things to players not fighting about things at all. It’s just been sort of messy.

But there’s a lot of basketball things to talk about in the league, too! A bunch of surprise teams are still surprising people in both good and bad ways depending on who your allegiance is with.

We’re diving into all of that today. Buckle up, people. It’s going to be a bumpy one.

BOOM.

Damian Lillard thinks the NBA’s officiating so far has been “unacceptable” but NBA fans don’t want to hear it

Whew. The Blazers might be in trouble.

Damian Lillard has really struggled so far this year. Actually, if we’re being completely honest here, that might be an understatement.

Damian Lillard has looked bad so far this year.

The Blazers’ star player is shooting a career-low 36% from the field and 25% from 3-point range. He’s scored 212 points while taking 211 shots so far and is only averaging 19.3 points per game this year.

This is very clearly not the Damian Lillard we’re used to. That’s obvious.

One reason for his struggles is, apparently, the league’s new officiating. The NBA has given its officials more leeway in calling fouls as a result of offensive players flopping and jumping into defenders for calls in the past.

Many folks love the rule change and what it’s done for the flow of the game. But Lillard called it “unacceptable” after Portland’s loss to the Clippers on Tuesday night.

“The way the game is being officiated is unacceptable…I’m not even a player that…I felt like, coming in, the rule change wouldn’t affect me because I don’t do the trick the referees, I don’t do the trick plays. And, it’s just unacceptable, man.” 

Lillard has clearly struggled with the officiating this season. He’s only getting to the free throw line 3.2 times per game, which is a career-low for him. So you can sort of see his point.

But NBA fans weren’t buying this. At all. To them, he needs to adjust.

The NBA’s new shooting foul rules seem to be here to stay so James Harden and other players better get used to it

The game is so much better without those weird fouls.

We knew the NBA’s new rules for shooting fouls would have some sort of impact on the game, but man, it feels like that’s understating it a bit at this point.

NBA players all over the league are trying to draw contact with unnatural basketball moves and it’s just not working at all this year.

For those out of the loop, the NBA changed its rules to crack down on non-basketball moves being used to draw fouls. From now on, when a shooter or an offensive player uses what an official determines to be a non-basketball move to draw a foul, it will either be ruled a no-call or an offensive foul.

That has disrupted some things around the league quite a bit, including with some pretty big names.

Referee John Hussey assigned to Week 3 Saints-Patriots game

Referee John Hussey assigned to Week 3 Saints-Patriots game:

The New Orleans Saints will kick off with the New England Patriots this weekend with veteran referee John Hussey and his crew officiating the game, per Football Zebras. Hussey has worked as a referee since 2015, and the Saints are 6-2 when he’s on the scene in that capacity. The Patriots are 3-2.

But the last time the Saints visited New England, they narrowly lost when an uncalled hold on defensive end Junior Galette by left tackle Nate Solder allowed Tom Brady to connect with wide receiver Kenbrell Thompkins on a touchdown strike in the final seconds despite tight coverage by cornerback Jabari Greer. We’ll be hoping for a better result this time around.

Through two weeks, Hussey’s crew has thrown 28 flags (tied for fifth-most) for 258 penalty yards (seventh-most), with an emphasis on false starts (6) and offensive holding (5). Oddly, 18 of those fouls have come against home teams.

Here is how Hussey’s crew’s top tendencies stack up against the Saints, Patriots, and the NFL averages on a per-game basis:

False starts Offensive holding Defensive holding Total penalties
New Orleans 2.00 1.00 0.00 8.50
New England 0.50 2.00 1.00 7.00
John Hussey 3.00 2.50 1.50 14.0
NFL average 2.81 2.53 0.53 13.59

 

Pete Carroll must manage ‘rage’ of Seahawks play to clean up penalties

Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll has a plan to manage and clean up the style of play that has lead to numerous flags and penalties.

The Seattle Seahawks seemed to have beat themselves on Sunday, giving up 10 penalties for 100 yards against the Tennessee Titans in Week 2. Seattle ultimately fell to Tennessee in overtime, a game the Seahawks were favored to win.

Coach Pete Carroll was asked about the penalty situation during his afternoon press conference on Monday and whether or not he has a solution to the problem.

“You have to be accustomed to being in that kind of rage that we play, and know how to manage it,” Carroll told reporters. “And we’ve got to stay cognizant of the rules and how people now the referees call the things – sometimes guys might lose the interpretation a little bit, but I thought the game was called well.”

A number of the penalties proved costly for Seattle but Carroll was quick to take responsibility without placing all the blame on what some would consider questionable officiating.

“I don’t think there were any calls of the ones that I’m referring to that were in big question, so it was just a matter of our guys have to just stay aware and make sure that they’re mindful of the situations that they’re in and make really good choices and decisions and protect us whenever they can,” Carroll explained.

“There was a game to be won there, and that’s why it’s a real disappointment to let them get away with it.”

The 1-1 Seahawks are set to square off against the Vikings in Minnesota Week 3.

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