It’s unclear why the penalties for improper use of the helmet have dropped so much from Week Two to Week Three of the preseason. But they have.
Through Week One (including the Hall of Fame game), there were 24. In Week Two, the number bumped to 27. For Week Three, the fouls fells to nine.
One potential explanation for the drop: The non-change change to the rule, with an exception created for “inadvertent or incidental” contact and a new focus on bracing for contact versus initiating contact. Another potential explanation: The officials are doing a better job of spotting these fouls in real time.
Per a league source, 11 of the 51 fouls called through the first two weeks of the preseason were actually not fouls. It’s unclear whether and to what extent errors were made in Week Three, but it’s possible that officials who had been erring on the side of throwing the flag are now focusing more on getting it right.