When the NFL announced its rule changes for the 2018 season back in March, almost everyone wondered what impact the new use-of-the-helmet rule would have on the game.
But three weeks into the season, it's a more minor rules tweak that's raised eyebrows in the safer _ Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews would say "softer" _ NFL.
Lions defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni said Tuesday that defensive players are still getting used to the new "body weight rule," the league's point of emphasis from March that prohibits defensive players from using all or part of their body weight to land on a quarterback after a pass attempt.
"I think this, I think that they're trying to protect the quarterback, which is certainly a good thing," Pasqualoni said on his weekly conference call. "It's a difficult call right now, but I'm sure as we work our way through that it'll become clearer as to what the technique is that we have to use when we do sack the quarterback and try with great effort to stay within the rules and not land on top of him, not body slam him to the ground. So I think there's _ defensive football is trying to make an adjustment right now in the spirit of the rule and we're working hard at it."
NFL teams have been called for 34 roughing-the-passer penalties through three weeks, more than double the amount of roughing penalties that were called at the same point of the 2017 season (16), according to the Sporting News.
Many of those penalties have been due to the "body weight" rule, and some have infuriated players and coaches across the league.
Matthews, who's drawn a roughing penalty in each of the season's first three games, accused the NFL of "getting soft" after he was called for one such foul in the third quarter of last week's loss to Washington.
He drew a similar penalty in a Week 2 tie with the Minnesota Vikings that nullified a late interception and helped set up the Vikings' game-tying touchdown.
"Unfortunately this league's going in a direction I think a lot of people don't like. I think they're getting soft," Matthews said, via ESPN. "The only thing hard about this league is the fines they levy down on guys like me who play the game hard."
While the rule was designed to better protect quarterbacks, it has been blamed for at least one season-ending injury.
Miami Dolphins coach Adam Gase said defensive end William Hayes tore his ACL in last week's win over the Oakland Raiders when his foot got caught in the ground as he pulled up to avoid landing with quarterback Derek Carr with all of his body weight.
The Lions, who are tied for fourth in the league with 10 sacks, have yet to be called for a roughing-the-passer penalty this year, though Pasqualoni said he hasn't done anything out of the ordinary to account for the new body-weight restrictions.
"There's a lot of good coaches in the NFL," Pasqualoni said. "Everybody wants to be tops from a penalty standpoint. Everybody's trying to win the penalty battle, so I think we're probably all trying to do the same thing. But we're certainly probably not doing anything any different than anybody else."
