Thursday Night Football

[stethant]

So much for Pitta....sheesh! Did ANYONE start (or even have) Daniels????

 

No one in their right mind would have done either. The Ravens offense looked better with 2 TEs in play - so I'd guess we're going to see more of this moving forward.

 

And yes, I am a Pitta owner.

[loaf]

a guy in one league picked up Daniels before kickoff but didn't start him

[stevegrab]

Well they aren't trying to tackle them, they are going for the big hit, and that's the problem. If you go for the big hit and miss, you get a flag. This isn't new, and it's not rocket surgery. Wrap the guy up and bring him to the ground. Not one of those penalties was on a tackle attempt. The Roethlisberger call was horribly blown, but it wouldn't have been called had the defender simply wrapped the QB up instead of lowering the helmet and going guided missile on him. We're on what the 3rd or 4th year of this now? These guys know they can't do it, and they keep doing it. Einstein had something interesting to say about doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.

 

Apparently you get a flag even if you don't miss. You cannot hit the QB high or low, so you must go for the body (think baseball strike zone) and a player is going to have to bend to wrap up at that point. So is he supposed to turn sideways so his head is away from the body and then wrap with the arms. But only if it is the passer, because if it was a RB or even QB running with the ball it is a legal hit.

 

Early on I got it, and I was one of those defending the calls and saying "players need to adapt". Now it seems like its more than adapting, it is going to require a completely new crop of football players that grew up playing under these rules (which I don't think exist in peewee, HS and college).

 

I also don't get how in the same breath you can say the call is horribly blown and then blame the defender for not tackling properly. So is the hit he made legal or not. Shouldn't matter whether he missed (he didn't) or whether he uses his arms after that hit to wrap up.

[flemingd]

Apparently you get a flag even if you don't miss

 

I also don't get how in the same breath you can say the call is horribly blown and then blame the defender for not tackling properly. So is the hit he made legal or not. Shouldn't matter whether he missed (he didn't) or whether he uses his arms after that hit to wrap up.

 

This comment was made on an incorrect assumption. I assumed that it was legal to hit him helmet first, but he got flagged because he put himself in a bad position. Normally I don't take this tact and blame the victim, but it's a known fact officials are told to err on the side of caution - if you tackle him instead of drilling him, you don't get the flag.

 

Turns out it was actually a correct call, so it's moot.

[jjpro11]

The league's a joke. The refs neutered the hardest hitting rivalry in football. The roughing call, hits by Polamalu and Mitchell leading with their shoulders, were all bullhonda. Brown gets hit in the head, but no flag? If the hit looks in any way violent, the ref will throw a flag now.

[flemingd]

The league's a joke. The refs neutered the hardest hitting rivalry in football. The roughing call, hits by Polamalu and Mitchell leading with their shoulders, were all bullhonda. Brown gets hit in the head, but no flag? If the hit looks in any way violent, the ref will throw a flag now.

 

They weren't flagged for leading with their shoulders. They were flagged for hitting a defenseless player in the head/neck area. Both of those calls were correct by the league rules.

 

Prohibited contact against a player who is in a defenseless posture is:

(1)

Forcibly hitting the defenseless player’s head or neck area with the helmet, facemask, forearm, or shoulder, even if the initial contact of the defender’s helmet or facemask is lower than the passer’s neck, and regardless of whether the defensive player also uses his arms to tackle the defenseless player by encircling or grasping him;

or

[jjpro11]

They weren't flagged for leading with their shoulders. They were flagged for hitting a defenseless player in the head/neck area. Both of those calls were correct by the league rules.

 

Prohibited contact against a player who is in a defenseless posture is:

(1)

Forcibly hitting the defenseless player’s head or neck area with the helmet, facemask, forearm, or shoulder, even if the initial contact of the defender’s helmet or facemask is lower than the passer’s neck, and regardless of whether the defensive player also uses his arms to tackle the defenseless player by encircling or grasping him;

or

 

 

So you're saying they should just let the receiver catch the pass, make two steps, then hit him? Where was Mitchell supposed to hit the guy? Smith is 5'9" and was crouching down.. Even then, it was still shoulder on shoulder contact.. What trucking replay did you watch? If anything, Mitchell should have been rewarded for hitting such a tiny target without knocking his head off. Brown's hit didn't draw a flag because it didn't look violent enough to the refs.

[flemingd]

So you're saying they should just let the receiver catch the pass, make two steps, then hit him? Where was Mitchell supposed to hit the guy? Smith is 5'9" and was crouching down.. Even then, it was still shoulder on shoulder contact.. What trucking replay did you watch? If anything, Mitchell should have been rewarded for hitting such a tiny target without knocking his head off. Brown's hit didn't draw a flag because it didn't look violent enough to the refs.

 

 

I'm not saying anything. The NFL is. It's Mitchell's problem to figure out how, not mine. He's the one playing for $25M, he's the one that can figure out how to comply with rules that are written in plain English. There are 1000's of tackles every week that don't draw a flag, I saw 3 or 4 myself that were great jobs of lowering the boom and popping the guy right in the numbers on identical situations.