Vikings safety Harrison Smith has caught referees’ attention for hits over the middle this season and whether that is fair or not has been debated by fans and analysts across the league.
The latest episode in the saga: Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb came over the middle and was hit by Smith as Lamb attempted to haul in a pass from Andy Dalton.
The Minnesota safety was given a 15-yard personal foul, which led to an inevitable debate about whether the hit was clean or not.
Well, at least Smith didn’t have to literally pay the price for his hit. As reported by Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press, Smith was not fined due to his unnecessary roughness penalty.
This is what Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said earlier in the week about the hit:
“I think the hit [by] Harrison Smith was clean,” Zimmer said, via Ben Goessling of the Star Tribune. “There were a lot of those things, but that’s not why we lost. But there were a lot of those things today, I thought.”