"It's hard to watch this kind of football."-Tom Jackson

Bamabuzzard

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I'm not sure if anyone caught ESPN's Tom Jackson's comments last night on ESPN but he made no bones about the lack of defense being played in the NFL and the lack of running games in the NFL. He said as he sat and watched the games yesterday and also throughout this season that "It's hard to watch this kind of football."

I watched several games yesterday and finally turned it off. It is becoming nothing more than Arena League football played on a bigger field. I agree with Tom Jackson, it's becoming harder and harder to watch football games that are constantly 34-31 and many of them higher scoring than that.

I think it's more so in the college game that we're seeing the exodus of defense.
 
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4Q Basket Case

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I'm not sure if anyone caught ESPN's Tom Jackson's comments last night on ESPN but he made no bones about the lack of defense being played in the NFL and the lack of running games in the NFL. He said as he sat and watched the games yesterday and also throughout this season that "It's hard to watch this kind of football."

I watched several games yesterday and finally turned it off. It is becoming nothing more than Arena League football played on a bigger field. I agree with Tom Jackson, it's becoming harder and harder to watch football games that are constantly 34-31 and many of them higher scoring than that.

I think it's more so in the college game that we're seeing the exodus of defense.
Agreed. And it won't change until the substitution rule is changed such that the defense has the same opportunity as the offense

That rule is the sole reason the HUNH works. Without hobbling the defense with a blatantly biased rule, it would be wholly ineffective.
 

B1GTide

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There are still some very good defenses in the NFL, and those teams are going to make the playoffs - even with anemic offenses like that found in Carolina and Kansas City.
 

deliveryman35

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The NFL rules committee has consistently legislated against good defensive play for years IMO, really going all the way back to the '70's when they moved the hash marks in to encourage more passing. This is the result. The NFL has basically become a glorified Arena Football League. I stopped watching on sundays because of this over 10 years ago....
 
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Tide&True

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I'm not sure if anyone caught ESPN's Tom Jackson's comments last night on ESPN but he made no bones about the lack of defense being played in the NFL and the lack of running games in the NFL. He said as he sat and watched the games yesterday and also throughout this season that "It's hard to watch this kind of football."

I watched several games yesterday and finally turned it off. It is becoming nothing more than Arena League football played on a bigger field. I agree with Tom Jackson, it's becoming harder and harder to watch football games that are constantly 34-31 and many of them higher scoring than that.

I think it's more so in the college game that we're seeing the exodus of defense.
The NFL has gone the way of the NBA...all scoring and no defense. I'm afraid college football is on the same path.
 

AgentAntiOrange

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eh...so goes the cycle every other decade or two. Defenses are dominant and the sky is falling because fans want offense. The game turns offense heavy and the sky is falling because the game is becoming Arena League. It's the midpoint between the 2 where the game is truly great and the extremes that help it evolve.
 
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CajunCrimson

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The NFL has gone the way of the NBA...all scoring and no defense. I'm afraid college football is on the same path.
The NBA is a defensive league now, maybe more than ever.

When I was a kid most games were 117-110 type games. 100 pt games are much scarcer now. Defensive teams are the strength of the NBA now. Much more of a physical league.
 

pigsinspace

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I watched some of the Rears-Eagles game last night. I ended up switching over to The Sound of Music.
It is not just the offense oriented attitude. The endless commercials turn me off even more.
 

Alabama22

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Agreed. Seems like everybody who has been on any rules committee the past 20 years or so feels like they need to change a rule or two to justify their existence or to put their own "stamp" on NCAA or NFL Football. It's really quite maddening.
 
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FitToBeTide

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The rationale is that more people (thus more ad-watchers) prefer to sit in front of the screen and watch footballs flying through the air and 100 points scored between the teams, rather than a 7-6, tough, hard-hitting, defensive ballgame. I blame the fundamental scrounge for more $ ultimately to be behind the emphasis on offense. I'm a fan of our guys in the pros, but don't follow the rest of the teams, at all. My interest in pro football in general left the dock long ago.
 

Florida Tom

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I only watch Bama players.

I don't like NFL games.

however some must because it's by far the biggest sport, people want to see scoring so they are giving the public what they want with rule changes always benefiting the Offense.

thank you Donald Trump for killing a fun to watch league, we will never see that again.
 

crimsonbleeder

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It won't change.

It is precisely what the NFL wants. The "unsophisticated" masses that really know nothing about "real" football, who are hooked on "fantasy" crap are the eyeballs, and they are what are driving television ratings, and therefore, driving the NFL to push in favor of offenses.

"real" football as we grew up on is over.
 

Bamabuzzard

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It won't change.

It is precisely what the NFL wants. The "unsophisticated" masses that really know nothing about "real" football, who are hooked on "fantasy" crap are the eyeballs, and they are what are driving television ratings, and therefore, driving the NFL to push in favor of offenses.

"real" football as we grew up on is over.
This isn't the first time I've heard Jackson mention something like this. I do wonder if the game progresses the way it is if people like Jackson will simply step away from it. You could tell he was disgusted last night.
 

CaliforniaTide

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I still watch when the 49ers are on. That's my NFL team growing up. Interestingly, they still love to run the ball and play stingy defense.

I'm not a fan of the emphasis on offense like many of you on here. I'm only 29 years old, but I didn't think I'd see the day where Tom Jackson and other ex-NFL players like him lament how poor defenses are today. I participate in fantasy football, but I don't care enough for the stats to pay attention to it. Like I said, I'll still watch the 49ers when I can.
 

WMack4Bama

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It is what it is.

The suits & stuffy types don't like the 9-3 games like the purists do. Just like the layman baseball fan can't appreciate a 1-0 game with amazing pitching and defense. The rules are geared toward making the product more marketable with the Wall Street types. And they're now being geared toward preventing lawsuits. They say it's for player safety but it's really to keep them from being used by the families of ex players.

If you need any evidence of this, look no farther than the so called Brady rule, where a defender can even contact a QB below the knee. Carson Palmer was injured the same way that Brady was (and has never been the same since) but the rule wasn't instituted until a face of the league (Brady) was lost for a season due to a defensive player (Bernard Pollard) who had been blocked to the ground and making a last ditch effort to make a play on the QB, hurt Brady. I've seen a defensive player penalized on at least 5 separate occasions for this and it's been ridiculous every time.

Another example, which makes my blood boil, is earlier season when Ahmad Brooks hit Drew Brees for a sack fumble and was called for unnecessary roughness. Brooks is about 6'4". Brees is 5'10" on a good day. The difference in height made the hit look much worse than what it was but it was absolutely ridiculous....but that's the world we live in...we try to make an inherently violent game "safe". Right
 

rolltide_21

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Well, what wins in football has always won in football. You need to be able to run the ball and play defense. These offenses make good discussion fodder in the regular season but in the playoffs and the Super Bowl the team who does those two things usually wins. There are only two spread teams in recent NFL history that have won a SB- the Saints and Packers. But, both of those teams had really good defenses in their Super Bowl years. As far as the improvement of teams like KC and the Panthers, I would say it is the defenses greatly improving that has caused them to have such great turn arounds- especially Carolina (yesterday is a good example of this). The Panthers' D can keep them in any game. This will make them a dangerous playoff team.
 
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