Updates

The NFL’s emphasis on illegal contact, interference and defensive holding on pass plays for the 2014 season worked well, according to Dean Blandino, NFL vice president of officiating.

“The coaches, the players, they wanted more consistency” in penalty calls, Blandino said Dec. 30, after the regular season ended, on the NFL Network program “NFL Total Access.” “I think we’re getting there. And I like the fact that the game time was not negatively impacted.”

Compared with the 2013 season, penalty calls nearly tripled for illegal contact, nearly doubled for offensive pass interference and increased about 50 percent for defensive holding in 2014, while defensive pass interference calls dropped slightly. At the same time, the NFL shaved nearly two minutes off the average game time.

See more of Blandino’s discussion of the issue, including the impact on offenses, on his weekly NFL Network segment, “Official Review.”

Each week, NFL Vice President of Officiating Dean Blandino provides detailed explanations of calls from the previous week’s games. Click here to see previous weeks of “Official Review.”