In the ongoing effort to stem the hitherto furious tide of penalties, the Dallas Cowboys have begun considering some unorthodox means.
Wade Phillips said recently that the team may bring in referees to further assess where they have so consistently gone wrong this season. This is a common practice in training camp--referees come in to camps across the league to help instill rule changes and the like--but for a team to do it in week seven would be, well, unorthodox.
"We may. That’s a possibility," Phillips said, per ESPN Dallas. "The officials we get, all they do is stand there and watch and see if we line up onside or offside during the season. But there are some other things we’re going to explore."
With 49 penalties overall, the Cowboys are tied with the Tennessee Titans for the third-most penalized team in the league; their 30 penalties on offense are tops in the NFL, and they’ve made quite the habit of shooting themselves in the foot at the most inopportune times.
It’s not as though Dallas has been ineffective this season on either side of the ball: they currently rank in the top five in the NFL with respect to both total offense and total defense. And yet, due in no small part to penalties, they sit at 1-4, and with little hope of so much as making the playoffs.
Considering, it’s no great wonder that Dallas would explore just about any option in their battle with chronic penalization syndrome.
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