The Washington Post - 19.09.2019

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU D7

nell echoed in his head: “ This s tuff

works.”

And as he adjusted, he kept

glancing to his right, past center

Chase Roullier to the other guard,

two-time Pro Bowl honoree Bran-

don Scherff. He could see Scherff

using the same techniques he was

being taught and tried to mirror

Scherff’s movements, watching

how Scherff attacked the defen-

sive tackles. Soon he found h e was

getting more comfortable, almost

content.

Flowers looked around the

locker room Wednesday, at his

teammates shouting and laugh-

ing, Scherff teasing him on the

way back from taking a shower.

Flowers chuckled. Monday night

will bring another test, an even

more aggressive, attacking de-

fense with the Chicago Bears and

superstar pass rusher Khalil

Mack. This time on national tele-

vision. He knows it will be a chal-

lenge.

But for now, at l east, everything

is fun.

[email protected]

intrigued. He admired the tech-

nique Parnell used, which had

been taught by Callahan.

Then, when the Redskins called

this past spring, he was very inter-

ested.

At first he didn’t get to play

guard. B ecause o f Williams’s hold-

out and injuries to other players,

he spent most of the offseason

workouts at tackle while trying to

think about playing guard at the

same time. He struggled in some

of the open workouts, leading

some fans and media members to

suggest h is signing was a disaster.

At the time, Callahan insisted

Flowers would become a good

guard, saying: “It gives us size. It

gives us power.” But it wasn’t u ntil

a week before the first preseason

game that Flowers finally went

back to guard. The transition

wasn’t simple, especially because

it was happening in the middle of

preseason games with everyone

watching — and criticizing.

But he admired the way the

Redskins linemen all used Callah-

an’s techniques. The words of Par-

In 2008, Jermey Parnell was a

bruising power forward a veraging

13.6 minutes and two fouls a game

at M ississippi, when he decided to

try football — a sport he hadn’t

played since eighth grade. The

Mississippi coaches played h im on

the defensive line, and he wound

up playing t he position for parts of

two seasons in the NFL with the

New Orleans Saints and Miami

Dolphins, though never in a regu-

lar season game. Finally, in 2010,

he joined the Cowboys and was

converted into an offensive line-

man. Callahan became Dallas’s of-

fensive line coach in 2012, and he

eventually molded Parnell into a

starter. Three years later, Parnell

signed a $32 million contract with

Jacksonville.

Flowers and Parnell became

friends when Flowers signed with

the Jaguars after the Giants re-

leased him this past October. They

talked a lot about Parnell’s story

and about t he offensive line coach

now in Washington who had

helped to make him a reliable

offensive lineman. Flowers was

only learned a few weeks ago —

against two of the NFL’s better

defensive lines in Philadelphia

and Dallas.

“I wouldn’t jump the gun yet,”

Flowers said Wednesday as he sat

in his locker at the team’s practice

facility. “It’s only been two games.

I’m just trying to get better.”

But he is the happiest he has

been since coming to the NFL,

playing a position that it turns out

he loves. The weird suggestion

made in a meeting room upstairs

turns out to have been the best

thing he could have been asked to

do. At guard the game comes

quicker than at tackle. It’s more

physical, and he has to communi-

cate more with the men beside

him. He has found he prefers

guard to the isolation of tackle, at

position where you are often left

alone to deal with the opposing

team’s b est pass rusher.

And to think he has a former

basketball star at t he University o f

Mississippi to thank.

REDSKINS FROM D1

Excerpted from
washingtonpost.com/redskins

Rodgers-Cromartie

to IR; Spence signed

The Washington Redskins
placed cornerback Dominique
Rodgers-Cromartie on injured
reserve Wednesday after he
suffered an ankle injury during
Sunday’s 31-21 loss to the Dallas
Cowboys. The team now has
10 players on injured reserve.
Rodgers-Cromartie left the
game with a severe limp but
later returned. Coach Jay
Gruden said the 12-year veteran
will undergo ankle surgery. The
team was not required to
release a full injury report
Wednesday because it is not
playing until Monday night.
Players on injured reserve
may return after eight weeks
and can start practicing after
six. Te ams can bring back two
players off injured reserve
during a season.
The secondary is already
banged up, with Quinton
Dunbar (knee) and Fabian
Moreau (ankle) missing
Sunday’s loss. Moreau practiced
Wednesday, but Dunbar did not
participate during the portion
open to the media.
The team added free agent
outside linebacker Noah Spence
in a move to help bolster its
pass rush. The 25-year-old was a
second-round pick of the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers in 2016 and
recorded 5^1 / 2 sacks as a rookie,
playing all 16 games with three
starts. He played 12 games last
season but finished with just
three tackles. The Redskins have
the second-fewest sacks in the
NFL this season, with just two
in two games.
“We’ll get him some reps out
there today and tomorrow and
see where he’s at,” Gruden said.
“If he can be a situational-type
rusher for us, give us a little bit
of juice, could [help].... With
DRC going on injured reserve,
we had a spot, and he was
available. One of the best pass
rushers on the streets right now.
Just want to get a look at him
for the next couple days, see
what happens.”
— Kareem Copeland

BY MARK MASKE

Any hope that the NFL had put
aside the consternation over last
season’s officiating quickly dissi-
pated amid turmoil about the
calls being made — and the calls
being missed — in the first two
weeks of the 2019 season.
The New Orleans Saints, infa-
mously hurt by a non-call in the
NFC championship game, al-
ready have been involved in de-
bates over two calls, and among
other issues, a roughing-the-pass-
er penalty proved costly for the
Denver Broncos. Questions have
been raised in and around the
NFL about the manner in which
Al Riveron, the league’s senior
vice president of officiating, and
his colleagues are administering
the new rule that makes pass
interference calls and non-calls
subject to video review.
“I’m concerned,” former NFL
referee John Parry said Tuesday.
“I’m not sure what it is, but I
know this: Fans don’t w ant excus-
es. They don’t want rationaliza-
tion. They d on’t w ant to hear how
fast the game is and how tough
the job is. Al and the officiating
department need to dig down,
and they all need to come togeth-
er and get it right.”
The league and its competition
committee moved swiftly during
the 2018 season and in the offsea-
son to address officiating issues.
When there was an outcry early
last season about a flurry of
roughing-the-passer penalties,
the competition committee clari-
fied how it wanted the rule ap-
plied. The issue faded as the
season progressed. And after a
missed pass interference call in

the NFC title game in January

helped send the Los Angeles

Rams, rather than the Saints, to

the Super Bowl, owners voted in

March to make interference re-

viewable.

But controversy has returned

this season. Like Parry, fellow

former NFL referee Te rry McAul-

ay said it’s up to the officiating

department, overseen by Rive-

ron, to provide guidance to offi-

cials to improve consistency and

reduce mistakes.

“Why are there errors? It ap-

pears to me that many officials

are working using their own per-

sonal perspective of what is or is

not a foul for pass interference,

holding, roughing the passer, etc.,

which has led to inconsistencies

from game to game,” McAulay,

now a rules analyst for NBC,

wrote via email. “They seem to

lack clearly identifiable stan-

dards for these very subjective

fouls.”

The league’s focus during the

offseason was devising a mecha-

nism, through replay, that would

avoid a repeat of the Saints-Rams

fiasco. But that work was narrow-

ly focused on pass interference.

And this season’s issues have not

been related to one particular

rule.

“For me, it goes back to the play

in January, and then we spent

eight months talking about in-

stant replay,” s aid Parry, t he refer-

ee for last season’s Super Bowl

and now a rules analyst for ESPN.

“Instant replay, to me, is a Band-

Aid. It can’t be the fix for officiat-

ing.”

The problems have been com-

ing fast and furious, and the

Saints have been victimized

twice. They beat the Houston

Te xans in their season opener,

but the league acknowledged that

a procedural mistake cost them

15 seconds during their final first-

half drive when a 10-second clock

runoff was done improperly.

In their defeat Sunday by the

Rams in Los Angeles, the Saints

lost a touchdown when an official

blew the whistle in the middle of

a fumble recovery return by de-

fensive lineman Cameron Jor-

dan. Instead of allowing the play

to be completed and then using

replay to determine whether

Rams quarterback Jared Goff h ad

lost a fumble or thrown an in-

complete pass, the official blew

the whistle, meaning replay

could award the Saints posses-

sion of the ball but not a touch-

down.

Coach Sean Payton said it was

“an awful call.” Jordan likened

the official to a Foot Locker

employee. After the Week 1 clock

mishap, quarterback Drew Brees

said “that can’t happen.”

The Saints aren’t alone in their

frustration. The Broncos were

upset about a roughing-the-pass-

er call on Bradley Chubb for a

seemingly legal hit on Chicago’s

Mitchell Trubisky that helped the

Bears to a last-second victory

Sunday.

There are various reasons for

the issues. For one, NFL rules

have become ever more compli-

cated. Parry said the timing issue

in the Saints-Texans game is ad-

dressed in four different places in

the rule book, and the wording is

slightly different each time. Also,

the officials have become less

experienced. The NFL promoted

seven officials to referee, the head

of the on-field crew, over the past

two seasons after departures of

multiple veterans. Not only are

those new referees less experi-

enced, they’re surrounded by less

experienced crews.

“It does take time for any new

referee to adapt to a whole new

level of pressure, scrutiny and

responsibility,” McAulay said.

“Each of them are very good

officials and, I would say, are

probably better than I was my

first couple of years, but there is

still a significant learning curve.”

Then there is replay for pass

interference. Much is being en-

trusted to Riveron. The NFL

knew there would be growing

pains and potential glitches when

it instituted a rule that made a

judgment call subject to replay

for the first time. To ny Dungy, the

former Super Bowl-winning

coach, took it a step further: He

said on NBC’s studio show Sun-

day night that the new system has

been, as he had feared, “a disas-

ter.”

Owners ratified the new sys-

tem on a one-year basis, so it will

be up for reconsideration after

this season.

“I tried to go in with an open

mind and say the glass is half

full,” Parry said. “I’m not there

now. Do I think the glass is

empty? No. Do I think it’s a

disaster? No. There is room to

regroup. [But] we can’t go 15

more weeks like this.”

McAulay said he had “been on

record from Day 1 as adamantly

opposed” t o the new replay rule.

“It is the most subjective call in

football,” he said. “I noted it

would be extremely difficult to be

consistent with decisions, and

that’s exactly what we’ve seen so

far.”

[email protected]

No matter what the NFL does, its o∞ciating headaches don’t seem to go away

REDSKINS NOTES

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Carolina Panthers Coach Ron

Rivera said he is confident backup

quarterback Kyle Allen can get the

job d one i f Cam Newton can’t p lay

Sunday against t he Arizona C ardi-

nals, a scenario that seems in-

creasingly likely each d ay.

Allen took reps with the first

team again Wednesday after N ew-

ton m issed his second straight d ay

of practice with a mid-foot sprain.

If Allen’s number is called, he

would start Sunday against his

former college teammate Kyler

Murray a nd t he Cardinals.

“Kyle is a very bright quarter-

back who understands the game

and grasps it very well,” Rivera

said. “He’s got a good a rm, a nd he’s

a good decision-maker, and he

plays very fast. He has all of the

intangibles you want in a quarter-

back.”

Rivera wasn’t ready to name

Allen the starter, though Newton

remains in a boot after aggravat-

ing his foot injury last Thursday

night in a 20-14 loss to the Bucca-

neers. He said Newton has still

been involved in the quarterback

meetings and is “doing all the

things h e needs to do.”

If Allen starts, it will mean a

matchup between Allen and Mur-

ray, who split time at quarterback

with Te xas A&M in 2015.

After the 2015 season, both

quarterbacks transferred — Allen

to Houston and Murray to Okla-

homa.

l BROWNS: Tight end David

Njoku got more banged up Mon-

day night against the New York

Jets t han p reviously known.

Along with a concussion, N joku

broke his right wrist while trying

to brace himself in a scary fall and

could need surgery, a person fa-

miliar with the situation told the

Associated Press.

l CHIEFS: Starting left tackle

Eric Fisher will undergo core-

muscle surgery. The team did not

provide a potential timetable for

Fisher, though w hen asked wheth-

er it could include a trip to injured

reserve, Coach Andy Reid said,

“We’ll just see.”

l COWBOYS: Dallas waived

defensive end Taco Charlton, who

didn’t live up t o his billing as a 2 017

first-round pick out of Michigan.

The Cowboys made the move to

clear a roster spot for defensive

end Robert Quinn, who was sus-

pended for the first two games for

violating the NFL’s policy on per-

formance-enhancers.

l JETS: Safety Jamal Adams

wrote on Twitter that the league

docked him $21,000 after he was

called for roughing the passer

Monday when he hit Baker May-

field with his left forearm just

after t he Browns star t hrew a pass.

NFL NOTES

Carolina has

faith in Allen

if Newton is

unable to go

MARK J. TERRILL/ASSOCIATED PRESS

A blown whistle cost the Saints’ Cameron Jordan a touchdown during Sunday’s loss to the Rams.

professional football

Flowers makes most of position switch

JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POST

Ereck Flowers struggled during his first four NFL seasons as a tackle, but he has been serviceable for the Redskins in two games at guard.

MICHAEL AINSWORTH/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Noah Spence made three
tackles in 12 games last season.

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