Bucs Receivers Not Drawing Defensive Pass Interference Flags
July 7th, 2024
Bucs WRs average at drawing flags.
Joe and the great Sage of Tampa Bay sports, Ira Kaufman, agree on something.
It is sad that the NFL has become such a flag-throwing league. Whenever there is a nice play, Joe immediately starts looking in the corners of the TV screen for a flag on the field.
NFL strongman Roger Goodell’s don’t-hit-too-hard league has a penalty problem: Way too many. Folks don’t watch games for zebras. Too often, games are called tighter than hell. Some referees just love the look-what-I-do-Ma screen time.
Because of this, Ira often says the Bucs, when in a pinch, ought to just throw a pass up to Mike Evans. The way referees throw a flag just for a defender breathing on a receiver, chances are better than 50/50 that Evans will draw a flag, Ira says.
First down Bucs!
While Evans may be good at that, the rest of the Bucs aren’t. Per noted handicapper turned stathead Warren Sharp, the Bucs are pretty much in the middle of the pack when it comes receivers drawing defensive pass interference calls.
Joe is a bit surprised at this as a few years ago, Evans was one of the best in the league at drawing defensive pass interference flags.
Perhaps it’s because, other than Chris Godwin and Evans, the Bucs receivers last year were all fairly young guys? They didn’t yet know how to make a referee pull out his yellow hanky?
DPI penalties drawn by pass offenses
19 – JAX
18
17
16
15 – DAL
14
13 – GB, SEA, CIN
12 – LAC
11
10 – DEN, WAS, PIT
9 – BAL, LAR, LV, ATL, NYJ
8 – IND, TB, HOU, MIN
7 – CLE, TEN, ARI, DET
6 – KC, NE, CAR, MIA
5 – NYG, CHI, PHI
4 – NO, SF
3 – BUF*2023 regular season
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) July 5, 2024
July 7th, 2024 at 11:12 am
The Zebras let a lot of offensive line holding go on in the league.
July 7th, 2024 at 11:27 am
Evans could’ve sold a pass interference call on 2 point attempt much better vs Lions in playoff game – that play remains bothersome
July 7th, 2024 at 11:42 am
Zebras could call an offensive or defensive holding on every play…IMO, it’s best to let the play on the field dictate the game results vs Zebras holding outcomes in their back pocket.
If they call the obvious consistently, from 1st play of game to the final buzzer…No one can complain too much. Problem there is too many officiating crews that don’t call all 4qtrs evenly or tend to be lopsided with the flag.
Feels like week to week teams are dealing with completely different interpretations of the rule book, depending on the crew you drew.
July 7th, 2024 at 11:55 am
Perhaps it’s just me being a ‘homer’ but it seems to me that, historically, we tend to have more penalty yards against than for.
It would take some comprehensive research because offensive penalties get listed as penalty yards as opposed to yards called back.
There are some teams that historically draw fewer penalties and there are teams like the Bucs that seem to be heavily penalized or don’t get the call, like when Otten was mauled on a crucial ‘hail mary’ play.
July 7th, 2024 at 12:11 pm
The only way to cover Mike Evans (beast) is to interfere. He has DBs hanging all over him on most every play. The problem for Mike is that he gets called when he fends them off.
July 7th, 2024 at 12:46 pm
@Alanbucsfan I am in total agreement about that play. The DB turned his back on Evans and then stopped going for the ball. A horrible non-call.
July 7th, 2024 at 12:55 pm
C’mon Joe, don’t you think the Brady effect had something to do with that? Now that we’re back to being just another small market team we don’t get the calls anymore.
July 7th, 2024 at 1:10 pm
I’m totally impressed with Jacksonville receivers drawing 19 DPIs when the league average was less than half of that. Looks like Calvin Ridley & Christian Kirk were true masters of that.
July 7th, 2024 at 1:16 pm
LOL so do I. The flags fly way too much.
July 7th, 2024 at 3:00 pm
I have wondered why. Mike used to bait the opposition and got about more yards in pass interference calls than he did catching. Last year, however, it seemed he hardly got any, and I seem to remember he got tagged with a couple. Either he has lost his mojo, or opps got wise to him, but something sure happened.
July 7th, 2024 at 3:05 pm
Seems to be an unwritten rule that DPI does not get called on those Hail Mary passes at the end of the games. Mugging ME seems to be fair game now too. Mike used to get it called but the last couple of years they just don’t call it. It’s like they decided Mike is so big it’s alright to crawl up his back or hand-swipe his arms before the ball gets there.
July 7th, 2024 at 3:43 pm
OL holding really bothers me when the D makes a move and is past the offensive lineman, he reaches back, grabs the defensive lineman and prevents him from getting to the QB.
This is the worst type of OL hold IMO.
July 7th, 2024 at 6:06 pm
Hard to imagine with mike crying every other play. Maybe he cried wold too much.
July 7th, 2024 at 9:27 pm
Tearful???
Joe thought the Bucs would be much better than that, specifically because of Mike Evans (which is all detailed in the story).
July 7th, 2024 at 11:30 pm
This is also from consistently conservative playcalling. We never throw downfield sideline shots at the end of halves or anything. Maybe other teams also don’t but the last 4 years I never see them go up top in an aggressive manner and it’s annoying. Maybe that’s the tv view and someone is always right over top Mike but there’s other guys to stretch same time. Anyway, I think this is directly related to aggressive play calling.
July 7th, 2024 at 11:51 pm
It’s called ‘getting screwed by the refs’. Evans never got any calls until Brady got here – and once Brady left, so did getting PI calls.
July 8th, 2024 at 1:26 am
^ Yup
July 8th, 2024 at 6:01 am
Joe,
I hate to break it to you. We do not get favorable treatment from the refs. Mike has been known to do his own impression of a clingy girlfriend and believe me he knows how. He gets flagged when others don’t. Ask Goedeke about phantom holding calls on the O line from last year! Bet he gives you an ear full! Same with Scotty Miller! DBs mugged the dude and stole his lunch money about half the time! No flag…
Go Bucs!
July 8th, 2024 at 6:18 am
I can’t stand when they throw a flag on a play for something that happened on the complete opposite side of the field and had nothing to do with the actual play. That is something that I bet our Bucs are in the top of the NFL going against our Bucs. Those flags should be abolished and/or allowed to be challenged.
Go Bucs
July 8th, 2024 at 7:45 pm
Don’t get me started on the officiating. Year after Mahomes was abused by the Bucs in the Super Bowl, the refs wouldnt call an offensive holding to favor the Bucs defense even if it was blatant. FRG