National Football League

Pereira: New officiating points of emphasis impact NFL opener

Published Sep. 4, 2014 11:56 p.m. ET

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The flags didn’t fly after all.

Not like we thought they might as the opening game of the NFL season got underway in Seattle Thursday night.

With the league’s new points of emphasis to have officials call illegal contact and defensive holding more closely — and after a preseason where we saw an inordinate amount of penalties — the potential for a lot of penalties being called didn’t really materialize in the Seahawks’ 36-16 win against the Packers.

However, there was one flag that flew that shouldn’t have in my opinion and it had an impact on the outcome of the game.

Here was the situation:

Seattle had the ball, third-and-6 on its own 24-yard line with 8:09 left in the game. Seattle led 29-16.

Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson dropped back and threw an incomplete pass. However, Packers linebacker Brad Jones was called for defensive holding against tight end Luke Willson, giving the Seahawks an automatic first down. Willson was coming off the line of scrimmage and a quick hand on his shoulder by Jones was called without any jersey pull that I could see.

That’s not what the league is looking for in my opinion. That is being too technical. You want to see a grab of the jersey and I didn’t see it here. It gave the Seahawks a first down and essentially ended Green Bay’s chances because it extended the drive another five and a half minutes and Seattle went on to score another touchdown.

Without the new points of emphasis this year, that call is not made.

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