With the replacement officials not flagging illegal contact (after all, the penalty doesn’t even exist at the lower levels of the sport), a league source tells PFT that coaches are telling defenders to hold as much as they can, until the officials call it.
Likewise, coaches are telling receivers to retaliate, pushing off until it’s called. (Of course, it was called on Sunday against the Ravens and receiver Jacoby Jones, in a key moment.) As a result, players are seeing a real difference in the game.
Rams receiver Danny Amendola, while stopping short of claiming that the coaches in St. Louis are telling the players to take advantage of the differences in enforcement, said during PFT Live that the players are making the adjustment on their own. However, Amendola said he likes the different dynamic -- as those 15 catches on Sunday would tend to prove.
For more from Amendola, who is generating plenty of attention as he approaches unrestricted free agency, here he is on PFT Live.