NFL head of officiating Dean Blandino said on Monday morning that Terrell Suggs' hit on Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford two days ago was in fact legal because it came on a zone-read play. On such calls, the passer is treated as a potential rusher.
Referee Jerome Boger called Suggs for roughing the passer after the Ravens linebacker appeared to target Bradford's twice surgically-repaired left knee during his tackle, a call Blandino says should not have been made.
Eagles head coach Chip Kelly, however, isn't buying what Blandino is selling. He still stands by the original call, saying the called play wasn't for a zone read.
"No, it was just a handoff," he said. "So not every shotgun run is a zone read play. We didn't run any zone reads. We had this conversation last year. We don't run as much zone read as everyone thinks we do. We're blocking the back side. He's not reading anything, he was just handing the ball off."
While Kelly and Bradford may think the play was illegal, the NFL Playbook would disagree.
Roughing the passer as a penalty only applies to "a player who is in a passing posture." Bradford was not, as he was bent forward in what was at the moment of the collision a rush attempt by Darren Sproles. Had Bradford regained his posture before Suggs hit him, the call would have been correct.
Kelly would prefer the league protect quarterbacks who hand off to running backs in the shotgun formation, likely because that constitutes much of his own offensive scheme.
"I think it would be troubling for the league if every quarterback in the shotgun can get hit," he said on Monday.
That may be true, but his view on the hit his quarterback took on Saturday is not. At best, the play was dirty, but it was not illegal.
No comments:
Post a Comment