The officials looked the other way when Jawaan Taylor committed many of his fouls
Football is back. This means that there will be bad calls and no calls in football again.
Things got ridiculous on Thursday night when officials repeatedly looked the other way as Chiefs right tackle Jawaan Taylor continually moved too far into the backfield, moved his right leg when it was supposed to be stationary – and began his pass. Justification before the snap.
This wasn’t just a situation of uncalled pre-snap fouls. At one point, Taylor held Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson multiple times on the same play.
Honestly, it got weird. But it’s not new. Last season, a lot of tackles (Lane Johnson handled it) were moved early. And there were many instances of uncalled for holds by offensive linemen.
At one point Chris Simms made a great point PFT Live. From his perspective (and he’s right), the defensive linemen have gotten better and better. Offensive linemen are overwhelmed. It is likely that officials will not cite false starts and/or holds to compensate for the situation.
It also helps keep passing games flowing and, most importantly, prevent quarterbacks from getting hit and thereby injured.
However, there must be limits. The failure to punish Taylor tonight was by far the wrong side of the line.
The NFL is lucky the Lions won the game. Had the Chiefs won the game and/or covered the spread, the decision to have Taylor constantly switch before the snap would have become a major problem on Friday.
It should still be a big problem; otherwise it will continue.
