NFL Fine Blotter Week 4 Part Deux: The "I Hate It When I'm Right" Edition

Edited for two more I found tonight!

As I said yesterday, the dirty hits (and the fines) just keep on coming. I'll be surprised if this is the extent of it, but tack another 6 players (including our second two-time loser (in the same game!!)) and $72,500 to the charity kitty.

• Biggest losers of the week are the Washington Redskins, up to three players now who've caught the dreaded Fed-Ex from the league: In addition to the one from yesterday, add Rob Jackson getting dinged $15,000 for throwing Sam Bradford to the ground
• and Perry Riley, fined $15,000 for hitting a defenseless player in a punt situation
• Baltimore Ravens: Haloti Ngata gets $15,000 taken from him for a helmet hit on Mark Sanchez Monday night
• and the Oakland Raiders get a two-time loser in Richard Seymour: $15,000 between two incidents, a face-mask and another dirty hit.
• New England Patriots: Patrick Chung hit for $7,500 for unnecessary roughness
• Arizona Cardinals: Patrick Peterson: $5,000 for roughing the kicker.

So that's $175,000 this week so far. I do think more is coming -- but, as of the information I've been able to glean, I want to give you a bit of trivia:

What do the Indianapolis Colts, New Orleans Saints, Cincinnati Bengals, Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, and Dallas Cowboys have in common?

According to the information I have been able to glean from various sources on the Internet, these are the only seven teams not to draw NFL fines in the first four weeks of the season.

The game is not being cleaned up, people.

Week 4 Fine Blotter for the NFL

6 players, $102,500 lighter. (And I think this is only part #1.)

• Brandon Meriweather for the Bears is back in the fine blotter. $20,000 for a helmet-to-helmet (was fined $40,000 for the same last year in a game) against Steve Smith.
• Jason Babin fined $15,000 for hitting Kyle Orton in the neck -- probably going to get another for his griping tweets about it.
• Maurkice Pouncey of the Steelers fined $7,500 for a late hit.
• Eric Frampton of the Minnesota Vikings gets $15,000 for a horse-collar tackle.
• Anthony Davis of the San Francisco 49'ers got fined $25,000 for two tripping penalties.
• Niles Paul of the Washington Redskins is $20,000 lighter for a helmet hit on a punt return.

Probably more tomorrow.

Scoreboard update after week 4:

Week 4 2011 average: 47.44, highest of the year, 2nd highest since 2001 (2008).

4-week average: 45.56, still the highest-scoring week 1-4 average since 2001.

Over goes 9-6-1, 5-2 in the last seven games of the weekend -- line was 40 1/2 for the Monday nighter, and they just got it to 41 for 24-17 TB.

And a couple of incidents get the week started all wrong...

Saturday: Illinois-Northwestern

Johnathan Brown has been suspended for one game by the university for this little misadventure.

Literally walks right up to a Northwestern player and knees him right in the family jewels.

And how he was not thrown out of the contest on top of it, I have no idea!!

---

A second one I had pointed out to me from a CNN.com report:

I want you to take a look at this CNN video and (if you still don't believe why) ask yourself why there are people very close to me who have given up football.

So what do we have here this week with the Giants and Arizona?

Saw the article, never saw the play til now. FOXsports.com has Mike Pereira on it's staff, a former ten-year head of officials (five as Director, five as Vice President of Officiating) in the NFL, to talk about various questionable calls.

The article is here, and addresses a call in the New York Giants' 31-27 win over Arizona.

3:10 to go in the fourth, Giants down 27-24.

Manning completes a pass to his wide receiver, is hit, but appears to stay standing until he goes to the ground and THEN releases the ball.

As you well know, the NFL rule is that you have to be downed by contact to be declared down in most cases -- I do believe there is the occasional "surrender" situation, but the point Pereira makes is that it's not evident here.

#1, the catch is clear, even by the Calvin Johnson Rule. He has made several "football moves", but...

#2, he goes to the ground on his own.

Pereira discusses this, and it appears that, by the rule he quotes on when the ball becomes dead, when the receiver went down and ceased advancement, he had "surrendered" the end of the play and flicked the ball out upon doing so.

Here's the rule, from the text of the article:

Rule 7, Section 2, Article 1 (e) states that "an official shall declare the ball dead and the down ended when a runner is out of bounds or declares himself down by falling to the ground, or kneeling and making no effort to advance."

Yes, it's a clear judgement, but the receiver does go down and lays on top of the ball. The real question is when the whistle blows here, and whether he stumbled or went down on his own.

This does appear to be, if not evidence of a rigged game, something to start with.

And the fans rejoice as scoring goes berserk again!!

Well, that took one week.

After a week where the league all but was operating on orders from Vegas to get some money back to the casinos, scoring is back near record highs again.

With the Monday nighter still to play, 2011 week 4 is the second-highest scoring week 4 in the NFL going back to 2001.

2008: 49.15 (mainly held by a 56-35 shootout)
2011: 47.87
2002: 47.21
2006: 46.43
2009: 45.57
2003: 42.93
2010: 41.29
2005: 41.07
2007: 40.57
2004: 38.57
2001: 38.06

So, the current season average list for the first four weeks of the season (Monday nighter of this season to come):

2011 is still the highest-average score in recent league history with an average of 45.63.
2002: 45.38
2008: 45.20
2007: 42.29
2009: 42.06
2003: 41.53
2010: 40.65
2005: 39.83
2006: 39.58
2004: 38.53
2001: 38.47

Meaning we are now four weeks into the season, and, year-over-year, the NFL's scoring is up a solid FIVE POINTS A GAME.

And, since we're at it, let's look and see how much damage Vegas took this week on the O/U, remembering that they were at 70%+ "over" for the first two weeks, and then a 6-10 third week on the "over".

(All information courtesy of vegasinsider.com again:)

DET-DAL: 46 - 46.5 34-30 DET. Over

NO-JAC: 45, with a single 45.5 at the Atlantis. 23-10 NO. Under, the tick didn't matter.

SF-PHI: 43.5- 44 24-23 SF. Over, and did the Philly bettors get burned!

STL-WAS: 44 - 44.5, with one 43.5 at the Wynn. Immediate upward movement when the initial number was 42.5 in most places, but nothing suspicious (the bettors just thought the initial "total" was too low). 17-10 WSH. The initial total was far too high; the game went under by tons.

TEN-CLE: 37.5 - 38, with a couple major moves to get it back in line at places like Stations and the Wynn, where the total actually kicked at 37! 31-13 TEN. Over it went.

BUF-CIN: 42.5 - 43.5, several full-point moves 43 -> 42 about an hour or two before the game kicked. 23-20 CIN. Push at most of the major casinos (except as noted), Under at Atlantis, Stations and the Mirage-MGM, over at the Hilton. You had a middle here!

MIN-KC: 40, and a very rock-solid 40 at that. 22-17 KC. Under it goes, but the total had it roughly right.

CHI-CAR: 42 - 42.5. Original total was 44, and very quickly moved with big under money to where it ended up . 34-29 CHI. $Cam Newton thanks all the under bettors, suckers! Game goes well over!

PIT-HOU: 45.5 - 46.5, depending on how much upward Sunday pressure showed up at the particular casinos, and there was quite a bit where the total got to 46.5! 17-10 HOU. Over bettors with major action get burned, sizzled, and fried, HARDCORE. Under, under, under.

Over-under basically absolutely square: 4-4-1 in the early games.

ATL-SEA: 39 - 39.5, with significant immediate downward movement when the initial total in the low 40's came out. 30-28 ATL. Whee, look at that game go over!

NYG-ARI: 45 - 45.5. SIGNIFICANT CONTROVERSIAL CALL IN THIS GAME, which goes a long way to determining the 31-27 Giants win. Call probably didn't matter on the game going over. If it was a rig, it was a rig for result. (And, given that the Cardinals were involved, that doesn't surprise me a bit. Steelers-Cards Super Bowl, anyone?)

MIA-SD: A solid 45, except you got the tick to 45.5 at Stations and the Atlantis got all the way to 46! 26-16 SD. However you slice it, the number was close enough, and went under.

DEN-GB: 46 - 47.5, which Green Bay alone went over on with 49 in the 49-23 win.

NE-OAK: Somebody was predicting fireworks!! The game opened 53 - 53.5 in most places, and quickly got to where the Wynn opened at 55.5 (and some 56's) pretty quickly! 31-19 NE. Thanks -- for -- coming -- suckers!!!

Over was 3-2 in the late games, 7-6-1 for the week going to:

NYJ-BAL: Game opened at 40.5 - 41, went to 43.5 - 44 before some under pressure came in -- which got summarily burned when Baltimore bitch-slapped the Jets 34-17!!

So that means the "over" for the week is 8-6-1. Not outside the realm of possibility, and several of the games were close to the number, so it sounds like we are getting some stabilization!

Now to check that controversial call...

Week 3 Fine Blotter: Clean Play Initiative = EPIC FAIL. TWENTY-TWO PLAYERS FINED

Catching up on my Fair Play Table, I noticed something alarming from week 3:

This has got to be a record: 22 players were fined by the NFL last week for actions from week 3.

• Atlanta: William Moore: $7,500 for having to lead with his helmet.
• Baltimore: Terrell Suggs: $7,500 for a facemask
• Buffalo: Nick Barnett: $7,500 for slamming Reggie Bush
• Cleveland got two: Phil Taylor got $7,500 for an illegal hit on quarterback Chad Henne
• and Mohammed Massaquoi got $7,500 for an illegal excessive celebration.
• Green Bay: Eric Walden: $15,000 for roughing Jay Cutler
• Houston: Danieal Manning: $15,000 for an illegal hit on the tight end of the other team.
• Miami: Three players got the dreaded envelope: Oshansky got $10,000
• and Bell got $15,000, both for illegal hits on Colt McCoy
• and Marshall got $7,500 for a late hit on a defender
• Minnesota: Chad Greenway: $7,500 because he had to horse-collar somebody
• New England: Ron Ninkovich: $15,000 for leading into the quarterback with his helmet.
• Pittsburgh with two more fines: Antonio Brown: $7,500 for a chop block
• and James Farrior gets $15,000 for a late hit on Kerry Collins.
• San Diego: Travis LeBoy: $15,000 for leading into the quarterback with his helmet.
• THE BIG LOSERS OF THE WEEK: St. Louis: FOUR players got fined, including our first two-time loser of the season, in the same game!!
• Bradley Fletcher picked up TWO $7,500 fines in the same game.
• Jacob Bell: $7,500 for a chop block
• Jason Smith: $7,500 for having to cheap-shot somebody.
• and Darion Alexander: $5,000 for roughing the kicker.
• Tampa Bay: Brian Price: $7,500 for a helmet slap of an opposing lineman.
• and Tennessee gets two to end the blotter: Jason Jones: $15,000 for helmet-to-helmet on the QB
• and Daniel Graham gets $5,000 for chucking the ball into the stands.

22 players, $217,500...

#1, you hit the QB with the helmet, it's going to be $15K and more.
#2, learn to fucking play the game by the rules or else...
#3, Goodell, get head out of ass, the fines aren't working.