Game thread: Minnesota vs. Green Bay, 9/16/18

[nodakfan17]

I was an apologist a few posts ago, but now I think the roughing call was BS ... and the NFL basically doubled down on it.

 

https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/2018/9/17/17871806/nfl-rulebook-special-tackling-a-quarterback-clay-matthews-tony-corrente-roughing-tom-brady

[young guns]

This us the first chance have just been able to just sit and watch the play over and over and I'm kinda starting to soften on it a little. In the replies down a bit someone posted the video of the Kendricks hit that drew a flag. I 100% agree that should be illegal. KHendricks wraps him up and then you can see him bend at the waist putting Rodgers directly under him and jumps so his full body lands on top. No bracing just full on intent to do as much harm as possible.

 

Now to compare that to Matthews hit. Matthews wraps up and then takes 2 drive through him steps with cousins falling to the ground mid second step. As cousins fall to the ground I believe his weight basically drags Matthews with him, pulling him off his feet which makes it look like what Kendrick did. Why these 2 are very different is because as Matthews was going to the ground, he put his arm out to break their fall AND pulled his legs on so he would land on his knees keeping his weight off cousins.

 

It's possible that clay was trying to see what he could get away with and did a half way pile drive, but I think it all comes down to intent. And clay totally did not intend to bunt anymore so it's just a normal foul ball... where was I? What I'm softening on is that I can see why he made the call he did, but he was wrong. What's stupid is I heard the NFL was going to include that play on a highlight reel the send around of what not to do. Same with the fail Mary. Can't admit when they are wrong,

[PeaveyFury]

This is one of those crap times where the NFL stands by a bad interpretation of a bad rule, then quietly changes the rule to address all the outrage next offseason....

[stoutdude04]

NFL says that it was a perfect example of scoop and pull...wow.

 

Cousins jumps in the air and that is probably the least dangerous tackle you're going to see. Its shocking to me that the NFL is content to create a game without acknowledging that the game is going to have contact and force between two humans. If that is truly a penalty in their eyes then the league is doomed.

 

I've basically tuned out NFL and use it for fantasy football and social situations with friends. I dont really care much about it.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Contact will slowly be eliminated. They can't do it overnight so they are doing this.

 

There is already a grassroots movement to kill youth football. Those things will not get better for the NFL with time and more science. I foresee a league in the future where we're playing two hand touch with sensors and every player is wearing gloves that sense when both hands have made a tag. There will still be blocking and hand fighting but tackling will be gone, as will rushing on offense but that's also been largely negated already anyway.

[nodakfan17]

You might be right about the direction of the league, but part of me still sees the NFL as a gladiator sport. There will always be young men who want to improve their lot in life (or who just love hitting). They are adequately compensated for the risk they assume, IMO. However, my 2 year-old son will not play football. He’ll have plenty of opportunities to make a living in a traditional career path. I don’t want him trying to chop the head of my corpse like Richie Incognito tried to do to his recently deceased father.

[OldHeidelberg]

We shouldn't be surprised by the NFL defending the call, they almost always do if there room for interpretation. I think they defended the fail mary if I remember right.

 

 

One thing that struck me after the game was the NFL is really blowing it on it's OT rule. I thought the coin flip victory by the Pats in the SB would be the final nail in the coffin but they continue to double down on this wacky rule. It was like 100 degrees Sunday and the teams were gassed, on top of this the Vikes won the toss and as it turned out got 2 possessions to the Packers 1 because of it. I used to hate the college shootout OT rules but now think it is the way to go in the NFL too. Everyone gets even amount of possessions from the 30 or wherever and you don't have XP's or FG's after 1st round. Would end things quickly for TV reasons and no massive advantage for coin toss winner. Amazing that this OT thing keeps going on.

[OnaBadger58]

NFL says that it was a perfect example of scoop and pull...wow.

It will be interesting to see how it's called against bigger QB's like Cam and Big Ben. That is literally best way to bring them down. This "rule" is beyond ridiculous.

[young guns]

I get the feeling that most teams are against this stance. I wonder what would happen if the coaches just declined the penalty. Would their competitiveness get in the way of this sort of cooperation? We would probably see some after game soreness where there was a borderline call that was accepted and the other team felt it should have been declined. Would the nfl even allow them to decline it? Doomsday scenario where team wants to decline, but refs wont allow it so the team refuses to line up at the new spot..

 

Well that was an interesting tangent.

[DHonks]

I still find it weird that while we're talking about the Matthews flag, nobody is mentioning that Brice should have easily intercepted or broken up the last TD. If he was watching the ball and not the player, he'd have seen the ball nearly hit him in the head.

[young guns]

Yeah i still have no idea how he missed that.