OT: Cincy-Steelers Game

[upstater]

Try hitting a moving target. It's not easy. A defensive back comes in to break up a pass with his shoulder, and suddenly, what he thinks is the chest is now the head. Happens all the time.

Football has been promoted and glorified as a collision sport for decades. I agree that the most important thing is to eliminate or at least greatly minimize head injuries, but I don't think there is any way to do that without radically changing the game we knew.

He really put his shoulder into him, had time to avoid him.

Even the Bernard thing should have been a penalty based on the much older rule (before the "defenseless receiver" rule) of leading with the crown of the helmet. Shazier went in with the crown. His head should have been up.

 

[upstater]

Oh, you'll get my agreement that the refs are pretty sh_t as far as penalty calling goes. The problem, as you allude to, is that it's never consistent. I'd love to see it regulated via reply ex post facto. I agree the Jones penalty was weak. If I'm a ref, I'm probably throwing offseting penalties there.

But let's face it, the Bengals did it to themselves. Feel bad for the running back though, because as much as he can't fumble there, the defender made one hell of a play. The ball carrier had the ball pretty well secured (not perfect, but good). Defender just came out on top.

Sucks for Brown too though. I don't see how he can be allowed to play next week. He was clearly knocked out for a brief moment. You could see by what happened with his arms, limp out in front with no bracing. It looked like a guy getting hit in MMA/boxing. I'm not 100% on the concussion protocol, so who knows.

I blame Marvin Lewis there. The RB needs both arm around the ball as he runs straight forward into the line like a fullback. He actually took his arm off the ball to make a cut.

 

[intlzncster]

Try hitting a moving target. It's not easy. A defensive back comes in to break up a pass with his shoulder, and suddenly, what he thinks is the chest is now the head. Happens all the time.

Football has been promoted and glorified as a collision sport for decades. I agree that the most important thing is to eliminate or at least greatly minimize head injuries, but I don't think there is any way to do that without radically changing the game we knew.

I don't disagree with the 2nd paragraph, but there was a relatively appreciable amount of time for Burfict to see (which he did) that Brown missed the ball, and avoid him. Burfict lines him up two steps before when he can see Brown doesn't have the ball At worst, Burfict could have dove to the right. Remember, this is a guy with tremendous athleticism, not hard for him to juke left.

Burfict decided to give him a little pop, probably not deliberately aiming at his head. But it was stupid. Although, it may have been on purpose, this is the guy we are talking about after all (play from last week):

 

[Excalibur]

Wasn't disagreeing with the penalty - ref had to throw the flag at that point. Just don't think Porter should've been allowed to do that - and the NFL agreed afterwards as he is getting fined.

Which means he should have been flagged, which means they don't have a chip shot field goal at the end.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Antonio Brown's "concussion" appears to miraculously be gone today.

 

[intlzncster]

Antonio Brown's "concussion" appears to miraculously be gone today.

Looks like he wasn't faking it:

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/1...antonio-brown-concussion-ruled-denver-broncos