CRITICS ROUGH ON NEW NFL RULE
The NFL is getting roughed up over its amplified enforcement of roughing-the-passer penalties that has generated headscratching calls, and a season-ending injury to a defender trying to comply with the league’s mandate not to land fully on the quarterback. Dolphins DE William Hayes tore his right ACL Sunday trying to avoid landing on Raiders pivot Derek Carr. In the off-season, the league dusted off a rarely invoked 24-year-old rule that outlaws defenders from landing on the QB with more than half of their body weight. “It helps me out because I’m a quarterback,” said the Texans’ Deshaun Watson, “but some of the calls are just kind of crazy.” There have been 34 roughing-the-passer calls. That works out to one flag for every 100 pass attempts, a massive increase over previous years. There were 16 such penalties through three weeks last season and 20 the year before that.