When Drew Brees broke the record-breaking record in the NFL's New Orleans Saints' Monday Night Game, putting quarterback legend Peyton Manning in second place, he was in full swing: Already in the first five weeks of the new season Season in the US Football League were overcome by quarterbacks and passport receivers of the league together 40,341 yards - this is just as new as the number of touchdowns (424) and points (3739) in total. Also in the week before a total of 228 touchdown passes have been thrown - 23 (!) More than in the previous record season 2013 (205).
What's behind the offensive spectacle?
Defense players have an explanation: Because the quarterbacks are protected under the new NFL rules like US presidents - and how kings are carried down the field in litters. There's something in it: the rules tightened once again at the beginning of the season to protect the quarterbacks are indeed causing a lot of frowns on players and fans.
For example, Clay Matthews was twice punished by the Green Bay Packers because he was said to have roused the opposing quarterback too roughly. Not only Matthews does not know how he tackles the quarterback, even old master Deion Sanders annoyed, as this video shows:
@ DeionSanders What's not happy with the call on Clay Matthews. He had to re-enact the tackle on @ShannonSharpe
: @NFLGameDay Prime pic.twitter.com/jwlgRF2Nhp
Matthews' team-mate Mike Daniels gave the impression in another scene that he did not dare tackle the quarterback anymore. These examples are symptomatic of the new uncertainty among defenders in the NFL.
The league, for its part, tries to explain with training videos what it considers to be a regular and an irregular attack on the opposing captain - so it's all about not landing your opponent's full body weight.
Luck gets body-slammed by two defenders: Clean hit.
Brady gets tapped on the helmet: Roughing the passer!
Wtf. pic.twitter.com/lKcdME0Kn5
Nevertheless, the discussion continues. On Thursday night, the Indianapolis Colts game at the New England Patriots came up with two other choices that, in comparison to both Matthews' and immediately against each other, give the impression that nobody in the NFL really knows what a clean hit is - and what not.
For years, the NFL had the same problem with asking what a captured passport is. "Nobody knows what a catch is", became the standard word.
The problem with this rule was that the passport receiver had to keep control of the ball after catching it while walking to the ground ("surviving the ground") - but the interpretations of this "ball control" were so different that the fans regularly drove to madness. After all: This problem has eased considerably this season, because now the receiver "only" has to control the ball, have two feet or another part of the body on the ground on the ground and make a "football move".
The latter is the important innovation: If you now catch the ball, take two steps - and then lose control of the ball when it hits the ground in the meantime - would still have ended the catch process. One of the most controversial "Incomplete Pass" decisions in recent years, Dez Bryant's non-catch in the 2015 playoffs, would probably be decided the other way around today.
Taken together, one could argue that better quarterback protection and more valid catches account for a significant portion of offensive performances in the current season. But there are other reasons as well, such as the strong performance of some quarterbacks: rookie Patrick Mahomes, many of whom thought he had no NFL format in the spring, threw four and one in his first two games for the Kansas City Chiefs six touchdown passes. Mitchell Trubisky of the Chicago Bears also had a gala appearance last week with six touchdowns.
The offense between offense and defense remains a cat-and-mouse game: the more coaches and offense coordinators bet on the pass game, the more the defensive lines will adjust to it. This was observed last week already in the traditional duel between the Chiefs and the Broncos. The Denver Defense could ultimately not neutralize Mahomes completely, but trim his imagination at least to the "normal" of a Quaterbacks.
Some of the games and results of the first four weeks of the 2018 season seemed like holding the control pad of a game console in your hand. In previous editions of the famous "Madden-NFL", virtually every long pass was also a hit. The NFL, which had been struggling in recent years due to various problems with massive loss of popularity, would certainly not be so wrong a halt to the spectacle. Time will tell if this wish comes true.