Despite the hue and cry from many players and fans, the NFL revealed Thursday that it won't be altering the way roughing the passer penalties are officiated this season.

The league announced that its competition committee conducted a conference call Wednesday evening "to discuss the enforcement of roughing the passer rules with a specific emphasis on the use of body weight by a defender."

The group reviewed infractions of the rule, which has been in place since 1995 but is being re-emphasized in the name of quarterback safety, from both this season's games and last year's.

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Per the NFL's executive vice president of football operations, Troy Vincent, the committee ultimately "determined there would be no changes to the point of emphasis approved this spring or to the rule.

"To ensure consistency in officiating the rule, the committee clarified techniques that constitute a foul."

NFL Network reported earlier this week that some committee members were not happy with the way the rule was being applied, specifically in regard to some hits by Packers linebacker Clay Matthews.

Through three weeks, there have been 34 roughing the passer calls, three against Matthews, who's drawn controversial flags in the past two games. Just 16 roughing calls had been called league-wide at the same point of the 2017 season.

After being penalized for his would-be sack of Washington's Alex Smith on Sunday (a week after his hit on Minnesota's Kirk Cousins was flagged, negating a game-sealing interception), an exasperated Matthews called the NFL "soft." Neither one of his penalties in the last two weeks was among the eight hits outlined in the league's video as either acceptable or impermissible.

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