Good questions, yd1.
I think one of the things that has been largely ignored is the fact that what a defensive player can do, within the rules of the game, is much more restrictive than in the past. You can only hit a guy a certain way - witness that non-penalty in the 'Bama/A&M game, where a defensive back was ejected for a hit to the head, when their helmets never even made contact. He was "un-ejected", but the penalty still was assessed??!! What was THAT?!
Inexperience is another factor. And I genuinely believe that the current popularity of the uptempo offense is another factor: once you start getting the defenses to breathing a little hard on a drive, and then you don't let them get subs in, you can dictate a higher scoring game. And that seems to be cutting both ways (meaning, against both defenses in a game). I truly believe that UGA and LSU have better defenses than what we saw IF - IF - you allow them to play under the rules of 30 years ago. There would still be the freshman mistakes, but I think the scores would have been lower.
There are some things I'd like to see made illegal. First, I HATE when an offense gets into their stance, starts their snap count, and then stands up and looks at the sideline. It OBVIOUSLY gives the offense an advantage. When I played HS ball, once you went into your stance, you couldn't come out of it until the ball was snapped. And even THEN there had to be TWO counts PRIOR to snapping the ball. I like the old rules better.
Next, give defenses a chance to make their substitutions. I don't want to watch one team drive another into the ground because they had the next 6 plays already called, and can look at the sidelines after getting into their stance and change the play based on what the defense is showing - make the QB use his own brain and adjust. If we are going to allow an uptempo offense, cut the clock down to a 30 second clock, so the offense gets held accountable for all those adjustments.
Back to the nature of what constitutes an illegal hit. It seems to me that the reason teams got away from the option offense, which USED to RULE the game, is partly because defenses got wise to it and started punishing QBs. It became pretty ineffective. Now it's back in the form of the "read option", and it seems like the NFL is going to go through a phase of it. Why not, since the QB is pretty much protected from the types of hits that were the reason why you NEVER, EVER saw it in the NFL years ago? Personally, I want QBs to be "held accountable" by LBs if they decide to hold onto that ball. Sliding is a cop out - take your medicine - or don't run the play.
Okay - I'm a little TOO old fashioned - sorry about that. Sometimes I put some pretty worthless two cents in, but that's the way I feel about it.
