Missed calls aplenty, and the NFL is looking for fixes
This has been the year of the penalty in the NFL.
Not so much because more flags have been thrown in 2016 — through Week 15 teams were averaging 8.09 flags a game this season compared to 8.10 in 2015 — or because a larger-than-normal number of games have been decided by questionable calls.
More because the questioning of the competence of the officials began, literally, on opening day with a flurry of unflagged hits to the head of the reigning MVP, Cam Newton, and continued, in some form, virtually every week, without a stop.