Hope this doesn't sound like a rant ...

[John Grasso]

Bob, it's funny you say that. I too looked forward to watching that game, but turned it off before halftime for the same reasons you gave. For that matter, I didn't care much for last year's Super Bowl either. Offense is fun to watch, but not so much when the defense is so hamstrung by one-sided rules that making a defensive stand is nearly impossible. I much prefer more of a mix of offense and defense and hope things evolve back in that direction.

I, too, turned it off by halftime but for a different reason - it was bedtime. When I was younger I religiously
stayed up to the end of Monday Night Football even if the game ended near 1 am and I had work the next day.
Now, I find that sleep is a greater priority than any televised sport although I DVR most games and will often watch them
the next day or two.

And don't get me started about baseball - growing up in NYC it was my number 1 priority - during the 1990s after
the sixth or seventh strike I said baseball which was once my dearest friend just passed away. I stopped following it
completely.

[bachslunch]

I, too, turned it off by halftime but for a different reason - it was bedtime. When I was younger I religiously stayed up to the end of Monday Night Football even if the game ended near 1 am and I had work the next day.
Now, I find that sleep is a greater priority than any televised sport although I DVR most games and will often watch them
the next day or two.

And don't get me started about baseball - growing up in NYC it was my number 1 priority - during the 1990s after
the sixth or seventh strike I said baseball which was once my dearest friend just passed away. I stopped following it
completely.

I hear you on the bedtime issue. Used to be I could pull a full day at work, do a whole bunch of enjoyable things afterwards (I have a ton of non-work interests, with sports being only one of these) and somehow manage to get enough sleep. Just can’t do all that anymore — work takes it out of me more than it used to. I still do watch baseball and football, but am more selective about the time I spend on it. And hey, if I’m dozing off, it’s time to call it a night. Don’t have much choice, actually.

[L.C. Greenwood]

For me, it's the blandness of the games, with offense taking over. I miss the days when teams could exert their physical will upon another team, or a good, hard-fought 17-14 type game.

And it's frustrating to see these ill-conceived rules changes, when it's not really that difficult to have a safer NFL without them. It's amazing to me virtually nobody talks about the huge role the players have in their own safety, and NFL head coaches could do a better job in pulling starters when a game has already been decided.

[RRMarshall]

Guys, try looking at it from this perspective. If you had gone a long journey with no TV and hadn't watched a football game since the early 80s and the first game you saw upon your return was that Vikings-Rams Thursday night game what would your reaction have been?? To me modern day football is getting closer and closer to Arena Football with every passing year, no pun intended!
I have talked about this with a few former players I have interviewed and they don't enjoy watching the modern version of the game just as we don't. 300 and 400-yard passing games used to be noteworthy feats, now you've had a bad game if you don't reach that benchmark. Dime and nickel defenses are practically the norm, and the game often comes down to can my third WR get open against your 5th DB. With all the complaints about player's kneeling do you think falling ratings just might be related to the quality of the product? No...I guess not..

[Terry Baldshaw]

People will always want more. It's human nature. A 35-31 game is exciting until it isn't high scoring enough. It's always more, more, more until the appetite is sated and then it becomes boring. I feel the same as those on this thread. The same applies to college football which has become a bore to me. Recently, there was a game with the final score of 92-61. It isn't much of a challenge any longer. The game simply doesn't hold my attention now. Perhaps it's overexposure of the product, I no longer waste my time with NFL night games. I once had a passion for the NFL but now I can take it or leave it. It's just another entertainment option to me.

[conace21]

The thing I don't like is that it seems it's all too easy for a team to make a big comeback now. That might mean from large deficits (28-3), or with almost no time left on the clock (the back and forth final 3 minutes of the Saints-Vikings playoff game last year.)
Granted, it makes for a more exciting game. But it seems to me that comebacks have become cheapened. They aren't as special anymore.
First time I noticed it was the 2012 playoffs. Atlanta jumped out to an early 20-0 lead over Seattle and still led by 20 in the 4th. The Seahawks scored 3 times to take the lead, but Atlanta rallied for a GW FG in the last 40 seconds.
The next week in the NFCCG, Atlanta took a 17-0 lead early in the 2nd quarter. SF rallied to win 28-24.
Then in the Super Bowl, SF fell behind Baltimore by 22 points, and rallied to come within 5 yards of taking the lead.
(Atlanta of course would have their own SB experience for the ages 4 years later.)
Now individually, these games were much more preferable to blowouts. I remember the strong of one sided Super Bowls in the 1980's and 90's. But having all these comebacks and near comebacks three weeks in a row.... it just dulled the excitement for me.
Note: Alex Smith was a backup in that Super Bowl. In his next playoff game, his Chiefs took a 28 point lead over Indianapolis. Indy rallied to win by 1.

It's gotten to the point that when Buffalo took a 27-0 lead over Minnesota at halftime last week, I asumed they were going to have to score 30 to win. I was shocked when the Viking offense never started humming and the final was 27-6.

[sheajets]

It's not just hitting the QB, it's all sorts of normal, legal hits that are being curtailed at the fear of future lawsuits. They're trying to take the head out of the game and that's just simply impossible with the speed of these guys, last second changes in momentum...it's just not possible

Games at times feel almost scripted. The rules, interpretation of them, what's legal and what isn't seems to change on a week to week basis. Every week we have controversies regarding game changing, season changing, employment changes decisions along with a million examples posted on social media when it wasn't called. The NFL has just gone down this chaotic rabbit hole and is asking far too much from its officials.

Let the defenders have a chance to truly defend, handfighting and some grabbing and contact is not the end of the world. Level the playing field a bit. Let the defenders land on a QB with his weight. Allow defense to truly be played

As crazy as it sounds I actually think fantasy football play a part in this as well. They want to keep the army of fantasy players stimulated and watching deep into the night with these outrageous statistics.

The stadium experience is almost dead at this point. I look around the league and it's empty seats everywhere.

[Reaser]

The thing I don't like is that it seems it's all too easy for a team to make a big comeback now.

This is up there for something I don't like either. Especially when people freak out and compare it to past comebacks as if it's comparable to Buffalo-Houston. It's not. That was special to watch.

Now, like you said, almost feels expected. Like the Falcons-Patriots in the SB, it wasn't surprising that NE came back, at all.

Also had the exact same feeling as you did about the Bills-Vikings game, which is kind of funny in that the "surprise" nowadays is that the Vikings didn't easily come back -- because I certainly was expecting them to run off at least 3 TD's in 3 quick possessions and have it become the close score, mindless entertainment game than the NFL loves it's games to be now.

[TanksAndSpartans]

As crazy as it sounds I actually think fantasy football play a part in this as well. They want to keep the army of fantasy players stimulated and watching deep into the night with these outrageous statistics.

I don't think its that crazy - I think the higher ups on the football side and the TV side know what a big driver fantasy is for the viewership/popularity. There was a time, I had no idea how my fantasy team was doing unless they were on one of the two teams playing in the game - then they would show the stats of the standout performers in the ticker, now even if a guy has 6 carries for 9 yards and 1 catch for 12 yards - I know it from the ticker.

Back to the video game thing Bob started with - in the better video games there is always a way to counter what the offense is doing - it may take some figuring out because if offense was too hard to pick up, the game wouldn't sell. So what happens is, players search for "glitch" plays or techniques like dropping the QB back an unrealistic amount. With both QBs at 400+ yards, >=3 TDS, 0 picks, its like they both found undefendable glitch plays.

[NWebster]

It's just horrible to watch. I feel like in every single game the winner is actually decided by the team that makes ONE single defensive play. The Super Bowl was won because of a SINGLE sack, the Rams won, essentially because during ONE series Aaron Donald showed up. It's like watching 60 minutes of Football to wait for one single defensive play - its awful.