Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Illegal contact penalties should not be automatic 1st downs

A Make teams have to earn the first down instead of getting it on a technicality.

5 yard penalties of that variety on 3rd Downs of 6 yards or more should mean a retry of that 3rd down.

7DnBrnc53 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 03, 2025 11:26 pm

The Jags weren’t one of the best teams by the end of 96, they were just lucky

They were because of the missed kick, but they were maturing late in the season. Once they got in, they were dangerous. They put a running game on the Bills like nobody did from 1990-93, and they knocked off the #1 seed Broncos.

As for NE, I don't know what happened. Maybe the Bronco win was their SB, and they got complacent. They would have won the SB if they beat the Pats.

Brian wolf wrote: ↑Thu Sep 04, 2025 12:45 am The Patriots just shut the Jags down. Listening to the broadcast, it felt like the Patriots pumped in noise to distract their offense and McGinest got a pass rush on Boselli that Bruce Smith couldnt do in the wild card game. I also dont feel the Jags would have beaten the Packers in the SB. In the SB, Parcells got out-coached by Holmgren. He overestimated his QB Bledsoe, rather than running Curtis Martin more, though the Packers stuffed their offensive line.

Starting with that opening win over the Steelers (of course beating them the previous year as well), the Jags in '96 were not looking all that bad from the start. Their expansion skin seemed to have already been peeled off of them. As far as the next step, simply being able to beat bad teams regularly, they started doing just that after getting shutdown at the 'Burgh, 28-3, to drop their record to 4-7. They won 5-straight to close the season. None of those wins were against good teams nor any of them decisively - especially that finale at home which they, really, should have lost. Yes, some luck there.

But once that Morten kick was missed - whether they would immediately skip those next couple of gears anyway or it was they being given a 'jolt' by that fortune, or a bit of both - they now were a hot playoff team! Maybe beating the Bills wasn't really an upset being that contention in the Levy Era may have already breathed its last breath. Beating Denver, however, was. Broncos should have been better ready for them, not rusted their starters in the first place those final weeks but still give credit where credit is due. Yes with Jax's running game and now being equipped on both sides of the ball to make a credible run, but law-of-averages simply caught up to them by the time they made it to Foxborough now having to face a Parcells/Belichick team who now knew they were obviously not to be taken lightly at this point.

Despite finishing 9-7 and their '95 expansion/CC-participant counterpart from the other conference at 12-4, I do think Jags top the Panthers in an important Jan '97 game. Hey, they beat them early in the season. They win by more than a TD, I think, as they actually did then. But had, say, the Pats all got the flu and Jax actually went off to NO, I couldn't help but think the buck would definitely have stopped there! Green Bay minus the points for sure (and it likely would be 17.5 at the very, very least). Mostly based on too-much-too-soon for Jax with the pendulum having to swing right on back.

Don't know if this is unpopular or not, but I never see anyone say it. Kneeldowns and running out clock should be legislated out of the game somehow. Elam rules, fine them, whatever. Both teams should always have to be trying to score. The same goes for sitting lineups in the final week, which has skewed many a close playoff race over the years. Everyone calls baseball boring, but it doesn't have sandbagging like this that's actually unwatchable.