David Bakhtiari had a comment about NFL officiating
David Bakhtiari and the Green Bay Packers fell short of the playoffs this season. The All-Pro left tackle has been vocal on topics related to the NFL after the season. Bakhtiari felt Houston Texans offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil was snubbed from earning an All-Pro nomination. He recently aimed at how games are officiated.
NFL writer Rick Gosselin Tweeted statistics comparing the average number of penalties per game versus in the playoffs thus far. Gosselin reported about three more penalties per game in the regular season for an average of 92 yards. In the postseason, the average number of penalty yards in this year’s Wild Card round was 60.1 per game. That’s about a third less in penalty yards from the regular season.
There was an average of 11.2 penalties for 92.0 yards per game during the NFL's regular season. In the opening weekend of the NFL playoffs, there was an average of 8.5 penalties for 60.1 yards per game.
— Rick Gosselin (@RickGosselin9) January 17, 2023
Bakhtiari saw Gosselin’s Tweet and commented on it. He Tweeted a pretty reasonable question:
“Why can’t they ref like it’s the playoffs in the regular season? People wanna watch the players anyways.”
Why can’t they ref like it’s the playoffs in the regular season? People wanna watch the players anyways. https://t.co/901h6lb70V
— David Bakhtiari (@DavidBakhtiari) January 19, 2023
I agree with David Bakhtiari. The refs can often be the focal point in games. In the regular season, refs can be annoying, especially when they make a call against one’s team. However, refs are tasked with making sure they flag penalties that are a point of focus for the season by the NFL, which takes their dictation from the owners. It’s an effort to make the games fair and ultimately more profitable, as theoretically, the play should be better.
The regular season flags could be curbed, but ensuring the game is played right and safely makes for a better product in the playoffs. It’s a delicate balance in a league where teams don’t practice as much as they used to, which was also something the players wanted for safety.
At least in the playoffs, they are letting the players play.
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The rest of the entire NFL and it’s fanbase has a similar question: why do the NFL referees officiate differently when officiating a Packers game than the rest of the league? There seems to be a disproportionate number of “missed” holding, roughing the QB, delay of game penalties against GreenBay vs the number called against the rest of the league. One wonders…