Cleveland Browns: 3 things that might make us mad despite solid win

Cleveland Browns Illegal formation penalties: beyond weird

The Cleveland Browns have managed to lead the NFL in illegal formation penalties, so far this season, by a wide margin. This is a rare penalty call, which has been used only 28 times in the entire NFL season league-wide. That is, the average NFL team has been called for this penalty fewer than once for the entire season.

This seems like something that is so fundamentally obvious that it would be hard to mess up, yet the Browns have managed to mess it up five times this season, and twice against Denver. Last season, they tied for second in the NFL with three.

Are the Browns getting too complex with their formations, or are the players not paying sufficient attention to where they are supposed to line up? It seems incredible that this penalty could occur at the NFL level.

The concept is very simple. Seven players are required to line up on the line of scrimmage. Eligible receivers must line up as the leftmost and rightmost players on the line. Five properly identified ineligible offensive linemen must line up on the interior of the line. The quarterback and three additional players line up behind the line of scrimmage.

Is that complicated? Perhaps it is God’s fault for giving humans only 10 fingers to count with, yet football is played with 11 players. a small detail, but disciplined professional teams should be able to line up in the proper location without causing a penalty.