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Every article, newest first. Officiating, rules, and the math behind what you are watching.
The Record: week 6, and the Rams lost a two-point game with 47 seconds left
Seven calls right. Seven wrong. A flat coin flip, the second soft week running after last week’s 9 of 15, and the week’s defining moment came down to a single flag with under a minute on the clock. The headline miss Los Angeles Rams were the heaviest favorite to lose all week, 82.9 percent at […]
the callThe Call: week 7, and the number still isn’t sold on Kansas City
Four teams are off this week. Buffalo, Jacksonville, the Chargers, and Washington all have byes, and none of them show up on the board below. Fourteen games instead of sixteen. Kansas City is 5-0. The Chiefs have outscored opponents by 57 points this season, the best mark in the league, and they’ve posted a positive […]
the recordWeek 1 by the flags: 237 accepted, and where they landed
263 flags in week 1, 237 accepted. Two pass interference calls moved more win probability than the other 235 put together. The full 32-team penalty ledger.
officiatingWeek 2 crews: who has your game and what they call
The NFL assigned its week 2 crews Tuesday afternoon. Here is every game, the referee, what he throws, and what the app's call looks like once the crew is in it.
how the game worksWhat an NFL Companion App Is Actually For
Fan demand runs on a multi-day clock and coverage crowds into one hour. What a real NFL companion app does across the whole week, from Monday meaning to the Sunday live shift.
officiatingThe NFL Never Published Its Crew Assignment Rules. The Schedule Did.
Seven seasons and 1,956 games of NFL crew assignments reveal rules the league never published: a season cap, mandatory spacing, and enough structure to put the right crew in a top three prediction 44 percent of the time.
roster movesCutdown’s 20 Trades, Measured in Flags
Twenty players were traded during NFL cutdown weekend. We graded every deal in penalty flags: who bought holding, who bought false starts, and who bought clean sheets.
roster movesNFC West Cutdown: Aaron Donald Is Back, and the Flag Ledger Has Notes on Everyone Else
The biggest transaction of cutdown weekend anywhere in football happened in this division, and it was not a cut. Aaron Donald signed with the Rams and ended a two and a half year retirement, a one-year return confirmed across the league wire within hours. Our ledger has its own footnote on him: across his last […]
roster movesNFC South Cutdown: Atlanta Shed Its Holding File, Carolina Signed a Roughing the Passer Record
Cutdown in the NFC South split along a clean line. Two teams shed flags. One team signed some. And one rebuilt its receiver depth by releasing most of it. The transaction wire treats these identically. The foul column does not. Atlanta Fourteen out, and the ledger’s loudest departure in the division. Wanya Morris was released […]
roster movesNFC North Cutdown: Chicago Cleaned Its Line’s Ledger, Green Bay Barely Cut Anyone
The NFC North’s cutdown was the lightest in football by volume, and it still moved real penalty history. One team released a former first round tackle with nine flags over two seasons. Another made the fewest moves of any team in the league and landed a veteran tight end anyway. Chicago Five cuts, and one […]
roster movesNFC East Cutdown: Washington Purged Its False Starts, Dallas Imported a Holding Problem
Two NFC East front offices spent cutdown weekend doing the same thing from opposite directions. Washington shipped out nearly every false start on its depth chart. Dallas traded for the most holding-flagged tackle to change teams all weekend. The wire calls these roster moves. Our ledger calls them what they are: flag transactions. Dallas Ten […]
roster movesAFC West Cutdown: Kansas City Imported the Division’s Biggest False Start Habit
The AFC West had the quietest cutdown in the conference by volume. It still managed to move penalty history around in ways worth writing down, including one trade that hands the division’s most procedure-flagged lineman to its most successful franchise. Denver Five out, four in, the only team in the division that added more than […]