I agree with the disappointment after games where the team shot themselves in the foot with penalties. I read the angst in the posts, and see the blame being heaped on the coaching staff. I suggest taking a different look at this.
Now understand, I am not condoning penalties.
The coach designs a play. He blueprints the specific player to be at a certain point during the play. He is a defender plugging the hole for the running back. Or a WR hitting his mark during a pass play. The coach MUST accurately determine the player can get to his assigned spot on time and execute.
We all see Vander Esch be late to the hole and the running back wiggles through.
Is this the coaches fault? He designed the play. He taught the play. They rehearsed the play. And yet Vander Esch is late. Hesitates. Now one might make the case the team took the player who cannot get the job done. And that would be correct. But in every case, the liability lies with Vander Esch getting to his spot late.
So, when a penalty happens. Surely the coaching staff taught discipline during the practices. To think differently would suggest coaches at the highest level of this game in the entire world ignored one of the foundational tenets of this professional sport.
I get frustrated, just like everyone else. But I also cannot help but believe the player who moves during a moment when another player is going in motion (Cee Dee Lamb,) or a center started to snap the ball early and stops (Biadasz,) somehow made a mistake because the people running the team failed to do their job.
Surely some of it is the ref. And discipline does fall under the title of the head coach. But the player who moves first because he is trying to get in front of a player that has been beating him consistently, or grabs and holds is at fault, first and foremost.
