Comments on: The red-flag-no-review rule has to go

By: chattanola

chattanola — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 17:24:52 +0000

Integrity of the game? I thought that rules were to assure the integrity of the game. If all scoring plays are to be reviewed doesn’t all mean all.

This is messed up.

By: mogogo1

mogogo1 — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 16:08:01 +0000

myopinionisrighterthanyours says:
Nov 22, 2012 6:51 PM
In this situation, for example, even if Schwartz hadn’t thrown his flag, Kubiak could have thrown his challenge flag, thereby canceling the review and guaranteeing that Forsett’s “touchdown” stood.

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The play would still have been reviewed had Kubiak thrown it. Periera already had a column on this. The review is intended to punish the team that will benefit from the challenge. Besides, the coach has to state what he is challenging. What’s Kubiak going to say? I don’t think my own team scored a TD. The rule is incredibly stupid enough. Don’t make it worse by throwing things in that aren’t there.

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But there might be a time you would challenge if you scored a TD. Crazy example that could actually happen: Team has the ability to run out the clock holding a one-point lead. A questionable fumble occurs, the leading team recovers and a guy breaks free and scores. They could go up 8 with a made XP, but they’d be giving the ball back to the opponent with time left to march down and score and tie the game with a 2-point conversion. If the coach decided running out the clock was the safer option, he’d challenge even though they scored.

Is Periera saying they’d only wipe out the review if they thought it was a frivolous challenge, but if they saw the benefit to wanting to keep the ball they’d then wipe out the review? It’s a horrible rule already, but if it is really worded making the officials judges over what the coach should be challenging, and set up to only wipe out the review in certain instances, its far worse yet.

By: rogerbrad

rogerbrad — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 15:00:30 +0000

A rules is a rule is a rule…

Such is the NFL

By: houstontexan713281832

houstontexan713281832 — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 14:34:50 +0000

As you can tell by my name im a texans fan. I agree that its a bad rule but that being said its still a rule at the moment. As others have brought up Packers, falcons and schwartz himself have all seen this rule in effect, so it falls squarely on Jim Schwartz shoulders to know the rules of the game. Its easy to say call should have been made correctly on field after watching several slow motion replays on tv but the refs dont see in slow mo. After that TD texans are still down by 10pts, where was lions D? Lions allowed texans to get FG and go 97 yds to tie the game. Lions had their chances to put the texans away, but failed to do so. Lions shouldve played 60 mins of football and maybe outcome would have been different

By: omniusprime

omniusprime — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 14:18:32 +0000

A really ignorant rule, made by committee of course. Even if a team throws down a challenge flag when it isn’t supposed to on a play that results in a touchdown, since the touchdown is always reviewable this rule should never be enforceable. The team throwing the flag would never get an advantage when the play results in a touchdown, and the refs end up making a bad call even worse. Definitely the most stupid rule in pro football. Give the team the 15 yard penalty on the ensuing kickoff but let the review process do it’s job of getting bad calls overturned. That is the whole reason for the review process.

By: starderup

starderup — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 09:08:22 +0000

It is a stupid rule and needs to be changed. The coach should also lose his next birthday.

By: txnative61

txnative61 — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 06:34:07 +0000

Play clock winds down—Flag, delay of game, 5 yard penalty. Coaches use challenges frivolously to gain advantage? Really?? They have a limited number each half, and should be able to use them up as they like, with loss of timeout as well if they lose. Duplicate an automatic: a 5 yard “delay”, loss of one challenge, and timeout if they lose—should be enough for using what they’re fully entitled to. I don’t even see it delaying the game since play is already stopped for the automatic. They just don’t like coaches challenging officials’ rulings.

By: purplengold

purplengold — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 04:56:53 +0000

15 yards is enough, you must review all plays to give credit where it belongs.

By: richc111

richc111 — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 04:30:19 +0000

It must drive the league up the wall to pay these guys $9,000 a game for this. Bring back the replacement refs!!!!!!

By: anythingbutyanks

anythingbutyanks — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 01:49:44 +0000

Does this mean that a coach for a team that scores could throw the red flag for a questionable touchdown in order to strategically eliminate the review, and simply accept the 15-yards as the consequence? Sure, the coach would be despised around the league, but say the opportunity came up in the AFC or NFC game and was the difference between losing or playing for a championship? Wouldn’t it be worth it? How long until a coach realizes this and decides to accept the risk? Yeah, I’d say this rule needs to be changed.

By: kylefitta

kylefitta — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 01:22:55 +0000

First and foremost, it should have never came down to a review because it was clear that his elbow was down. But ultimately, whether you agree with the rule or not, the blame has to be solely on the coach. It’s not like the NFL rules are hidden and locked in a vault. The coaches should know the rules of the game; if they don’t, it’s their fault – whether or not they agree rule is moot. They should know it.

By: washstnative

washstnative — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 01:20:10 +0000

This is a rule more than likely written by a lawyer…

By: myopinionisrighterthanyours

myopinionisrighterthanyours — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 23:51:05 +0000

In this situation, for example, even if Schwartz hadn’t thrown his flag, Kubiak could have thrown his challenge flag, thereby canceling the review and guaranteeing that Forsett’s “touchdown” stood.

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By: myopinionisrighterthanyours

myopinionisrighterthanyours — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 23:47:11 +0000

Simple solution. If a coach throws the flag on a play that will be reviewed, it counts as a lost challenge. Review the play anyway, and no matter the outcome, the coach who threw the flag delaying the game loses both a challenge and a TO.

By: vltrophy14

vltrophy14 — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 23:46:53 +0000

Week 1 or 2 McCarthy did the same thing & the Packers got a 15 yard penalty. Now the Lions fans know how us Packers fans felt in week 3 against Seattle. Besides the red flag rule another rule that NEEDS to go is the tuck rule.

By: wreckintexin

wreckintexin — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 23:24:46 +0000

having said that, who to say the Texans wouldn’t have scored anyways in a couple of plays after the penalty put them on the lions 40 or 30?

By: larrydavidstern

larrydavidstern — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 23:23:48 +0000

The only thing dumber than this rule, is the fact that the NFL will wait until the offseason to “review” it.

By: wreckintexin

wreckintexin — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 23:22:24 +0000

the play should still be reviewed and only a 15 yard penalty assessed.

By: blackandbluedivision

blackandbluedivision — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 23:21:38 +0000

Lions fans always blame a loss on refs. Get over it. Your coach doesn’t understand the rules. Your defense couldn’t stop Houston the rest of the game and your 90 year old kicker couldn’t kick a chip shot. Don’t blame the refs. Stop shooting yourself in the foot.

By: blackandbluedivision

blackandbluedivision — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 23:18:50 +0000

You don’t reward someone while committing a penalty. A guy gets pass interference (offense) you don’t give them the yardage or TD and tack the yardage onto the kickoff or on first down. The idea is to stop a coach from throwing a flag on a play. 15 yards isn’t going to stop him. A coach will take the risk on a turnover just to get the ball. Same with a TD. The rules are there for a reason. I would complain if they didn’t automatically review it.

By: thestrategyexpert

thestrategyexpert — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 23:17:11 +0000

Yeah it’s a stupid rule, but until the rule is changed the coach needs to be aware of how the rules work and play the rules to the team’s advantage and not the disadvantage. The Lions could be 11-0 right now as every game we lost we had enough potential to win, and every game we lost the weakest members of the team were non-players.

Until the Lions get a strategy consultant or strategy manager to help out the coaches and take a load off of all of the little things that they can’t manage efficiently or even properly, then they aren’t ever going to be serious competitors. They are just too prone to making too many little mental mistakes and it’s the same list of complaints week in and week out. They need personnel to specialize and assist in all of these extra little things that keep getting missed or messed up on.

By: stakex

stakex — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 23:05:05 +0000

This is the most idiotic rule I’ve seen in any sport. So what if the coach throws a challanage flag when a challange was already coming? How does that slow the game down at all?

I could see a fine for the coach, a loss of challange even if the play is reversed, and even a 15 yard penelty… but to not even look at the play because the coach throws the flag? That just doesn’t make sense, and is a rule that clearly prevents the integrity of the game from being maintained.

By: jimmylions

jimmylions — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 23:02:20 +0000

Question … if Gary Kubiak had thrown the flag, would the rule still prevent a review?

The idea being that if it’s a questionable call and your team scores, it sounds like the way the rule is written means you could throw the challenge flag to prevent a review.

By: nickellbag

nickellbag — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 22:47:51 +0000

The fault is all on Schwartz period. He doesn’t throw the flag, the call is reversed.

By: firejc

firejc — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 22:35:28 +0000

Throw the flag and penalize them the 15 yards, but still review the play.

That’s what replay is all about attempting to right a wrong, so throw the flag and walk off the yardage but review the play.

By: ialwayswantedtobeabanker

ialwayswantedtobeabanker — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 22:23:51 +0000

It’s a given that this moronically conceived legislation needs to be amended to reflect some semblance of sanity.

How about one step further? FIRE every clown who signed off on this thing. Who can possibly be this stupid? In most of our lines of work, idiocy of this caliber results in getting canned … IMMEDIATELY.

By: coolzog

coolzog — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 22:14:45 +0000

Looks like the abberration of last season is over. The Lions can enjoy watching the playoffs at home again…good ol’ Thanksgiving day tradition.

By: jetmetfan

jetmetfan — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 22:01:00 +0000

There should NEVER be a rule that allows an incorrect call to stand. Since touchdowns and turnovers are automatically reviewed there’s really no advantage gained from throwing the flag. When the coach throws it, just tell him to pick it up because the play is being reviewed anyway.

By: primetime0552

primetime0552 — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 21:45:21 +0000

@Jason Wilde…..the rule doesn’t make sense. it doesn’t give the booth anymore time to review the play. the extra point doesn’t happen until the official gets word that its under review or the play is good. so it doesn’t delay the game anymore than the game would already be delayed. the extra point does not happen until the official on the field gets the word and says its good to go……

By: FinFan68

FinFan68 — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 21:44:59 +0000

How about just pick up the flag and tell the coach that the play is already being reviewed? Isn’t that what they do when they say stuff like the whistle blew? The NFL’s rules are written from a lawyer’s mentality. They try to fix a small problem and in the process they cause a HUGE problem. That is how the majority fans can’t say what is a catch, TD, interception or fumble anymore.