2016 CFL Thread

[Qman]

Watching Edmonton @ Winnipeg, the number of flags would be UNBELIEVABLE if this was any league other than the CFL.

A real turn off for any newbies to the league and even long time fans such as myself. What can be done?

Way too many challenge reviews for calls and non calls. Everything under a microscope. Too much down time and even worse when you are at the stadium. Improving in stadium fan experience has to be a No. 1 priority

THIS!!!!!! flow of play is the issue

[Qman]

Watching Edmonton @ Winnipeg, the number of flags would be UNBELIEVABLE if this was any league other than the CFL.

A real turn off for any newbies to the league and even long time fans such as myself. What can be done?

That is a tough one.

The game ic complicated. Teams coach to the limit of a penalty. For example, OL use hands to the limit. Rusher gets by, the OL would rather take a penalty than get QB killed. On a running play OL will take it to the limit. DBs take it to the limit. I think you have to coach it that way.

Refs must be taught to let stuff go that does not affect the play. Example, holding miles away from the ball carrier.

Part of it is the nature of the game, heavy contsct.

No solution. But better teams do play smarter.

I got one ... why is holding even a penalty. if you can hold, it promotes offense. holding is even safer for the game (less colisions) what is wrong with that.
Time to take the rule book and burn half of it.

[B.C.FAN]

OK so I took a gamble on the Bombers and lost, but that aside, how many flags were thrown this game? Whether they went to Edmonton or Winnipeg is not the issue, that was embarrassing for the CFL.

Whether blame falls on players or officials, fix it. Or lose fans and relevance as a suicide.

I missed the game but according to cfl.ca, there were 32 penalties called, of which 27 were accepted or upheld by replay. That's high by any standard. Through the first three weeks of the season, there was an average of just under 19 penalties accepted per game, which was down 8% from 20.4 penalties per game last year.

[KnowItAll]

Watching Edmonton @ Winnipeg, the number of flags would be UNBELIEVABLE if this was any league other than the CFL.

A real turn off for any newbies to the league and even long time fans such as myself. What can be done?

That is a tough one.

The game ic complicated. Teams coach to the limit of a penalty. For example, OL use hands to the limit. Rusher gets by, the OL would rather take a penalty than get QB killed. On a running play OL will take it to the limit. DBs take it to the limit. I think you have to coach it that way.

Refs must be taught to let stuff go that does not affect the play. Example, holding miles away from the ball carrier.

Part of it is the nature of the game, heavy contsct.

No solution. But better teams do play smarter.

I got one ... why is holding even a penalty. if you can hold, it promotes offense. holding is even safer for the game (less colisions) what is wrong with that.
Time to take the rule book and burn half of it.

maybe the asinine useless players should learn to play without holding.

[KnowItAll]

if people are going to keep complaining about penalties year after year, maybe ya all should turn to aussie rules football.

[Sir Purrcival]

OK so I took a gamble on the Bombers and lost, but that aside, how many flags were thrown this game? Whether they went to Edmonton or Winnipeg is not the issue, that was embarrassing for the CFL.

Whether blame falls on players or officials, fix it. Or lose fans and relevance as a suicide.

I missed the game but according to cfl.ca, there were 32 penalties called, of which 27 were accepted or upheld by replay. That's high by any standard. Through the first three weeks of the season, there was an average of just under 19 penalties accepted per game, which was down 8% from 20.4 penalties per game last year.

But how many calls were actually challenged? If 5 were successful and lets say another 5 weren't, at an average of 2 mins for reivew, that is 20 mins of extra time devoted to things other than game play. Endless opinionating by the commentators (they only seem to get it right 1/2 the time) , watching and re-watching the same play over and over again. Not to mention, waiting with held breath after almost every damn big play to see if there is going to be a challenge.

I like the concept of the replay but it is almost getting to the point of wondering why we even have officials. Although I will say tonight, they sure did muff it on a couple of potentially game changing calls that without replay would have changed the game outcome likely. I think I would like to see a hard limit on the number challenges available. Maybe 2 per game per side regardless of right or wrong.
That would end some of these "flier" challenges where the coach is more hoping than convinced that a penalty took place.

[B.C.FAN]

OK so I took a gamble on the Bombers and lost, but that aside, how many flags were thrown this game? Whether they went to Edmonton or Winnipeg is not the issue, that was embarrassing for the CFL.

Whether blame falls on players or officials, fix it. Or lose fans and relevance as a suicide.

I missed the game but according to cfl.ca, there were 32 penalties called, of which 27 were accepted or upheld by replay. That's high by any standard. Through the first three weeks of the season, there was an average of just under 19 penalties accepted per game, which was down 8% from 20.4 penalties per game last year.

But how many calls were actually challenged? If 5 were successful and lets say another 5 weren't, at an average of 2 mins for reivew, that is 20 mins of extra time devoted to things other than game play. Endless opinionating by the commentators (they only seem to get it right 1/2 the time) , watching and re-watching the same play over and over again. Not to mention, waiting with held breath after almost every damn big play to see if there is going to be a challenge.

I like the concept of the replay but it is almost getting to the point of wondering why we even have officials. Although I will say tonight, they sure did muff it on a couple of potentially game changing calls that without replay would have changed the game outcome likely. I think I would like to see a hard limit on the number challenges available. Maybe 2 per game per side regardless of right or wrong.
That would end some of these "flier" challenges where the coach is more hoping than convinced that a penalty took place.

Four plays were reviewed on coaches' challenges, two by each team. In each case the call on the field was reversed. Each team is normally entitled to two challenges per game. If they win both challenges, they are entitled to a third challenge. In theory, each team could have challenged once more.

I watched the delayed broadcast overnight on TSN2. It looked like an entertaining and well played game. The penalties that were called and upheld all seemed to be legitimate. I saw several plays that I would have challenged based on the TV camera angles but weren't challenged on the field. According to the official game stats, which list penalties accepted or enforced on review, Winnipeg took 14 penalties for 136 yards and Edmonton tolk 12 penalties for 114 yards. The game took 3 hours and 4 minutes to play, which was nine minutes more than the league average of 2:55.

[Sir Purrcival]

Well it seemed much longer than that. There were at least 2 challenges that didn't prevail. One resulted in a penalty against the bombers for trying to make a challenge that wasn't permissible. One for for a defensive pass interference non call. Lets also take into account that often as we saw last night, the challenge flag doesn't come out until we are well into the 20 second clock which often starts about 30 seconds after the previous play. In some instances, it can be up to a minute after the play before we see the challenge flag. It just feels like you keep getting held up while you wait to see if the previous play is going to stand. Let's also not forget the TD reviews. We can often wait a minute or so while HQ reviews a play that seems pretty bloody obvious to the rest. Do you have stats on how longs games took before the institution of replay? I hate to say it, but I am almost starting to lean to the other side of just letting the officials make the calls and they really do need to improve their consistency on what is a penalty and what isn't. Even the commentators don't seem to know much of the time as in one game, something is called, then next, it goes unpenalized. Same for the challenge. One week a play will be overturned on challenge, the next week, it seems like a similar play will be allowed to stand.

[B.C.FAN]

Well it seemed much longer than that. There were at least 2 challenges that didn't prevail. One resulted in a penalty against the bombers for trying to make a challenge that wasn't permissible. One for for a defensive pass interference non call. Lets also take into account that often as we saw last night, the challenge flag doesn't come out until we are well into the 20 second clock which often starts about 30 seconds after the previous play. In some instances, it can be up to a minute after the play before we see the challenge flag. It just feels like you keep getting held up while you wait to see if the previous play is going to stand. Let's also not forget the TD reviews. We can often wait a minute or so while HQ reviews a play that seems pretty bloody obvious to the rest. Do you have stats on how longs games took before the institution of replay? I hate to say it, but I am almost starting to lean to the other side of just letting the officials make the calls and they really do need to improve their consistency on what is a penalty and what isn't. Even the commentators don't seem to know much of the time as in one game, something is called, then next, it goes unpenalized. Same for the challenge. One week a play will be overturned on challenge, the next week, it seems like a similar play will be allowed to stand.

The use of video review began in 2006 and has been expanded in recent years to allow coaches' challenges in more situations, such as offensive and defensive pass interference and roughing the quarterback, but the number of challenges allowed per game (two per team, or three if the first two are upheld) has not been increased. Last year the league averaged 1.65 challenges per game so teams have been using less than half of their allotted challenges.

As you noted, coaches' challenges do not include plays that are automatically reviewed by the league, including touchdowns, turnovers and now field goals. I don't know how much time those reviews add to a game but the average length of games has not changed significantly in the past five years:

AVERAGE LENGTH OF GAMES (hours:minutes, not including overtime):
2011: 2:53
2012: 2:53
2013: 2:55
2014: 2:55
2015: 2:52
2016: 2:55 (through three weeks)

[DanoT]

On two occasions I saw a Bomber defend grab jersey on replay. Both times: no penalty call and no challenge. There are too many players breaking the rules and in most cases deserving of penalty.

[Belize City Lion]

Video replay of penalties and non-calls has also helped highlight just how bad the CFL officials are at their jobs. So like replays or not, we are likely stuck with it now. Clearly the CFL zebras can't be relied on to make the correct call often enough.

[CardiacKid]

I missed the game but according to cfl.ca, there were 32 penalties called, of which 27 were accepted or upheld by replay. That's high by any standard. Through the first three weeks of the season, there was an average of just under 19 penalties accepted per game, which was down 8% from 20.4 penalties per game last year.

But how many calls were actually challenged? If 5 were successful and lets say another 5 weren't, at an average of 2 mins for reivew, that is 20 mins of extra time devoted to things other than game play. Endless opinionating by the commentators (they only seem to get it right 1/2 the time) , watching and re-watching the same play over and over again. Not to mention, waiting with held breath after almost every damn big play to see if there is going to be a challenge.

I like the concept of the replay but it is almost getting to the point of wondering why we even have officials. Although I will say tonight, they sure did muff it on a couple of potentially game changing calls that without replay would have changed the game outcome likely. I think I would like to see a hard limit on the number challenges available. Maybe 2 per game per side regardless of right or wrong.
That would end some of these "flier" challenges where the coach is more hoping than convinced that a penalty took place.

Four plays were reviewed on coaches' challenges, two by each team. In each case the call on the field was reversed. Each team is normally entitled to two challenges per game. If they win both challenges, they are entitled to a third challenge. In theory, each team could have challenged once more.

I watched the delayed broadcast overnight on TSN2. It looked like an entertaining and well played game. The penalties that were called and upheld all seemed to be legitimate. I saw several plays that I would have challenged based on the TV camera angles but weren't challenged on the field. According to the official game stats, which list penalties accepted or enforced on review, Winnipeg took 14 penalties for 136 yards and Edmonton tolk 12 penalties for 114 yards. The game took 3 hours and 4 minutes to play, which was nine minutes more than the league average of 2:55.

We gripe about the refs and I get frustrated too with how the flow of the game gets lost when flags fly. But Al Bradbury is a good ref; he does a good job of explaining the calls, he keeps the pace moving at a good rate and is decisive.

I didn't see the game in its entirety but the fact the game went longer than usual I am inclined to think it wasn't because the refs weren't doing their jobs.

[TheLionKing]

What an ugly game currently underway in Montreal. Hamilton leads 5-4 in the 3rd quarter. Penalties galore.

[TheLionKing]

We finally have a touchdown ! 12-4 Hamilton.

[B.C.FAN]

Hamilton and Montreal are terrible teams. Kent Austin doesn't look like a very good coach when he doesn't have a quarterback. Jim Popp has never been a good coach. The two quarterbacks have no pocket awareness, the offensive lines can't block, running backs can't secure the ball and there are too many undisciplined penalties on both sides of the ball. Hamilton has some good kick returners, though.