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The 2024 NFL season kicked off Thursday night, and it did so with just as much hubbub surrounding offensive-line penalties as it did high-scoring action from the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs. The Ravens, in fact, couldn’t make it a single drive before drawing three different flags for illegal formation, an infraction committed by left tackle Ronnie Stanley four times in the first half alone.
Why the sudden onslaught of flags for illegal formation? And what does it mean for the rest of the season?
First thing’s first: The NFL often has a point of emphasis when it comes to officiating each year. Sometimes it’s testing out pass-interference replay (remember that?). This year, according to Football Zebras, it was cracking down on illegal formation.
The infraction designates that a team has failed to properly align with seven players on the line of scrimmage at the start of an offensive play. Offensive tackles are typically permitted to line up “off” the line if their helmet isn’t behind the waist of the center, but this has been a gray area in recent years, most notably in Week 1 of last season, when Chiefs right tackle Jawaan Taylor was repeatedly and “egregiously off” against the Detroit Lions, resulting in several flags and even more social-media critique.
“The formation fouls were reviewed with teams extensively before, during, and after training camps by the officiating department,” Football Zebras reported Thursday. “The bowing of the linemen is an advantage in pass rush situations, and the [NFL’s] Competition Committee said it had to be shut down.”
Stanley, for what it’s worth, still believes the referees unfairly targeted the Ravens in the game against the Chiefs, telling reporters afterward that “whatever calls they made, it’s their decision” but that “it didn’t feel consistent with what were told” by the officials during the offseason.
“I’ll challenge them to call it…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/why-illegal-formation-penalties-dominated-ravens-vs-chiefs-season-opener-and-what-it-means-for-rest-of-2024/
Author : Cody Benjamin
Publish date : 2024-09-06 14:57:54
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