This has been the year of the penalty in the NFL.
Not so much because more flags have been thrown in 2016 — through Week 15 teams were averaging 8.09 flags a game this season compared to 8.10 in 2015 — or because a larger-than-normal number of games have been decided by questionable calls.
More because the questioning of the competence of the officials began, literally, on opening day with a flurry of unflagged hits to the head of the reigning MVP, Cam Newton, and continued, in some form, virtually every week, without a stop.
