The whole team carries themselves in the same manner. Ahmad Brooks, the one who tried to take Brees' head off, said that penalty call cost them the game. You know, not the fact the Saints outgained them at a dominating 2:1 ratio.
"Cost them the game" that we had done almost everything in our power to gift wrap and hand them. That game was three boneheaded plays away from being a 31-3 blowout.
the Saints got bailed out, I hate that penalty, even though I love the Saints, that was the end of the game. So about the penalty, what are you supposed to do with the QB, its like the green jersey in practice, cant hit him high, cant hit him low. Its complete bullshit.
Disagree about them getting bailed out. That's the rule. You can hate THE RULE all you want, but it was called correctly. Had that happened to Kaepernick, Harbaugh would be crying to high heaven. If it happened against his team, like in this case, it's a horrible call.
because its the rule, does not mean that it isnt a bullshit rule. Just put a green jersey on the guy and call it a day then.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and not ask if you are advocating allowing pass rushers to take shots at the QB's head. The issue we have on this play, as is usually the case when this rule is enforced, is that we as fans watching on TV have the benefit of slo-mo and replay from more than one angle. With that being available to us, we can see that there was no initial contact to the head. But at game speed, and seen from behind the play, which is the ref's view, its understandable how the ref made the split-second decision to throw the flag. Brooks is up high, Brees' head does snap around from the impact, and Brooks' helmet ends up behind Brees' head. His right arm is around DB's neck, and he grabs him by the back of the collar as he pulled him down. The wrap around the neck, I think, is enough to throw a personal foul flag, just not for helmet-to-helmet as the ref declared it to be. These things have a way of balancing out. Home cooking was decisive in New England beating the Saints a few weeks ago. Karma came back our way yesterday.
Also, let's not forget that all the penalty did was allow the Saints to keep the game-tieing drive alive. The 49ers got the ball back with more than 2:00 to play, and went 3 and out. That's why the Saints won the game; because the defense shut down the 49er offense for most of the game.
That's not the issue. The rules explicity states that a defender cannot come in contact with the head or neck of the QB. It doesn't say 'unless the defender hits his shoulder first' or 'unless the QB's neck initiates that contact'. It may be a bullshit rule that needs to be revisited (it won't be, so welcome to today's NFL), but it was still called correctly on the field.
how about hitting him between the high thigh area and the rib cage? that's plenty of hitting area coaches need to work harder than ever to teach these players how to make hits on defenseless players (receivers and QBs) that's on them, unless you just want to get called for 15 yard penalties every time and complain about it afterwards
