One of the big talking points from the Baltimore Ravens' season opener loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was Baltimore being called for a whopping five illegal formation penalties.
Every year the NFL picks a penalty to enforce with extra emphasis, sending a message that it will have very little tolerance for those violations. This year it chose illegal formation, which in its simplest definition is when an offense doesn't have enough players on the line of scrimmage or players are not lined up correctly.
The Ravens quickly felt the wrath of this, getting flagged for illegal formation three times on their opening drive. Fortunately, they were still able to score a touchdown on that drive but were penalized for it two more times on the night. The Chiefs, on the other hand, were not called for a single illegal formation.
Many couldn't help but think that was a suspicious circumstance, especially considering the Chiefs have reached the point of always being accused of referee favoritism given all their recent success. However, as Sunday's Week 1 slate of games concluded, there were only a total of 15 illegal formation penalties called, which computes as an average of 0.52 per team as Kevin Oestreicher of Ravens Wire pointed out on X.
That definitely doesn't reflect a point of emphasis from officials. It's one thing to crack down on something whether it seems fair or not, but not being consistent with it across the league is inexcusable. Ravens coach John Harbaugh said as much to reporters following their loss to K.C.
So where do the Ravens, and all other teams for that matter, go from here? Everyone is left wondering if the league is truly going to be stricter about illegal formations or not. Balitmore could make an uproar over feeling like it was singled out, but that may put an even bigger target on its back.
If the NFL does get back to calling more illegal formations, offenses will have to stay disciplined and not push the boundaries, which is challenging in this age of creative offensive formations and execution that we're in. With the state of NFL officiating over recent years, the best any team can do is stay true to how it prepares and let it play out.
