I've been wanting to ask this for a while now, but keep forgetting. I'm a pretty casual NFL fan, in that I generally watch the "ball" during the game. So I have a very superficial understanding of line play. Therefore holding penalties has always been kind of a mystery to me. I know the common cliche regarding holdiing is that "the refs can call one on every play". But that doesn't seem to explain it. For example, the Texans seem to get a lot less calls this year compared to the past. Or take the Bucs this last game. Where every single one of their 1st down plays seem to get called back because of a holding. It really does seem kind of random to me. Kind of like reputation calls or something. Since we have a great O-Line, we're not suppose to be holding and such.
Just depends on the individual referee as to what he will call holding or not. In general, if your hands are outside of the shoulders/arms, you're technically holding. If you bring someone down with your hands outside of this area, you're more likely to get called. If a referee sees you doing this, and you prevent someone from making a play, you almost definitely will get called. Mostly, though, it is a subjective call, and largely depends on the official that sees it. I'm sure someone else will expand on what I wrote, too.
Generally you'll see the ref throw a flag in situations where it is obvious that the defensive player has beaten his blocker but the blocker is holding on or dragging him back to prevent him from getting to the back.
Yeah it's mainly a visual thing, but sometimes it's pure instincts. For instance, if the offense is running a stretch play, where their formation consist of 0 WRs, and 1 or 2 tight ends lined up on other side of the Oline, those 2 tight ends are suppose to pry pressure on the DE's and LB's/OLB's opposite the direction the RB will be running... And say a CB comes free or one of the OLB's gets a jump on the ball and clearly has a step on the outside TE to stop the RB at the line of scrimmage, and your vision gets blocked so you don't see the hold CLEARLY but you know the defender was in perfect position, and all of a sudden that CB/OLB gets pulled down to the ground. So many scenario's where you just know there is holding. Happens the most on cutback runs, where your blocking scheme changes at the moment the RB changes the direction of his run.
