If you’ve been hiding under a rock for the first three weeks of the NFL season, you would emerge to find the most commonly-discussed issue pertaining to professional football is the increase in roughing-the-passer penalties. The Steelers’ Monday night game against the Buccaneers had four such penalties — the most in a single NFL game since 2001. With each penalty yielding an automatic first down, it’s a call that can change the landscape of any game.
Throughout the league, there have been 33 accepted roughing-the-passer penalties so far in 2018. Over the last 10 years, there have been only five weeks in an NFL season where the number of roughing-the-passer penalties have hit double digits.