Tag: roughing the passer

Saints cheated out of interception by abysmal roughing the passer penalty

The Saints were cheated out of an interception by a horrible roughing the passer penalty. Is anybody surprised at this point?

Look. We know there have been all kinds of issues with officiating in the NFL this season. Last Monday’s Steelers-Bears game was just one example, albeit an especially loud one. But when it comes to the worst call of the 2021 season, we may look back after the fact and say that the roughing the passer penalty Jerome Boger’s crew laid on Saints pass-rusher Kaden Elliss in Sunday’s Saints-Titans game may be the most meritless of them all.

And yes, we know that roughing the passer is a specific point of emphasis this season, but is there any penalty that is more inconsistently officiated than the one in which the officials are supposed to determine whether a defender hit the helmet of the opposing quarterback? On the play in question, Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill threw an end zone interception to safety Marcus Williams, but that pick was negated by a roughing the passer call on Elliss that really had no basis in fact. You tell us if you see anything resembling roughing the passer here. Elliss makes incidental contact with the back of Tanehill’s helmet, but if this is roughing the passer, we all need to stop, take a deep breath, and consider what we’re trying to accomplish here.

The Titans scored a touchdown on that drive with their second chance, putting the score at 13-7. We’ll have to see if there are any more longstanding ramifications from this ridiculousness.

“What you hope for in that play is that the umpire, who is in the offensive backfield and has the opposite angle, can come and talk to you there and walk you through that and hopefully get you to pick that up,” CBS rules analyst Gene Steratore said on the broadcast. “So you get the right call at the end of the day. Because that is not roughing the passer, in my opinion.”

Boger’s umpire this season is Fred Bryan, and apparently, Bryan didn’t have enough to say on the subject.

If you want to know how inconsistently roughing the passer has been called this season, consider that per NFLPenalties.com, while this was Boger’s sixth of the season, Land Clark’s and Ron Torbert’s crews tied for the lead through Week 9 with eight calls each, and Bill Vinovich’s crew hadn’t called a single roughing the passer penalty.

The NFL’s roughing the passer rules aren’t just flawed — they’re flawed by design

The NFL’s roughing-the-passer rule isn’t just ridiculous and impossible; it’s ridiculous and impossible by design.

We know that the NFL told its officials before the 2021 season to place special emphasis on roughing the passer penalties this season, and that has played out through the first five weeks of the season. Per NFLPenalties.com, there were 127 called roughing the passer penalties in the entire 2020 season; there were 48 through the first five weeks of the 2021 season. Many of those calls have been ticky-tack at best, but when you tell a group of officials to play special attention to the points of emphasis of a penalty, that’s what you’re going to get.

With 10:09 left in the Cardinals-Browns game, Cleveland defensive lineman Malik Jackson was called for roughing the passer on a play where offensive lineman Max Garcia actually pushed Jackson into quarterback Kyler Murray, and Jackson did virtually nothing to Murray when he arrived at the quarterback.

Jackson pushed Murray in the back, but it could just as easily be argued that Jackson was pushing off to avoid sending Murray to the ground. Either way, there’s no indication that Jackson actually roughed the passer based on the NFL’s rules.

From Rule 12, Article 11 of the NFL Rulebook, here are all the possible ways in which roughing the passer can and should be called:

Because the act of passing often puts the quarterback (or any other player attempting a pass) in a position where he is particularly vulnerable to injury, special rules against roughing the passer apply. The Referee has principal responsibility for enforcing these rules. Any physical acts against a player who is in a passing posture (i.e. before, during, or after a pass) which, in the Referee’s judgment, are unwarranted by the circumstances of the play will be called as fouls. The Referee will be guided by the following principles: 

(a) Roughing will be called if, in the Referee’s judgment, a pass rusher clearly should have known that the ball had already left the passer’s hand before contact was made; pass rushers are responsible for being aware of the position of the ball in passing situations; the Referee will use the release of the ball from the passer’s hand as his guideline that the passer is now fully protected; once a pass has been released by a passer, a rushing defender may make direct contact with the passer only up through the rusher’s first step after such release (prior to second step hitting the ground); thereafter the rusher must be making an attempt to avoid contact and must not continue to “drive through” or otherwise forcibly contact the passer; incidental or inadvertent contact by a player who is easing up or being blocked into the passer will not be considered significant. 

(b) A rushing defender is prohibited from committing such intimidating and punishing acts as “stuffing” a passer into the ground or unnecessarily wrestling or driving him down after the passer has thrown the ball, even if the rusher makes his initial contact with the passer within the one-step limitation provided for in (a) above. When tackling a passer who is in a defenseless posture (e.g., during or just after throwing a pass), a defensive player must not unnecessarily or violently throw him down or land on top of him with all or most of the defender’s weight. Instead, the defensive player must strive to fall to the side of the quarterback’s body, or to brace his fall with his arms to avoid landing on the quarterback with all or most of his body weight. 

(c) In covering the passer position, Referees will be particularly alert to fouls in which defenders impermissibly use the helmet and/or facemask to hit the passer, or use hands, arms, or other parts of the body to hit the passer forcibly in the head or neck area (see also the other unnecessary roughness rules covering these subjects). A defensive player must not use his helmet against a passer who is in a defenseless posture—for example, (1) forcibly hitting the passer’s head or neck area with the helmet or facemask, even if the initial contact of the defender’s helmet or facemask is lower than the passer’s neck, and regardless of whether the defensive player also uses his arms to tackle the passer by encircling or grasping him; or (2) lowering the head and making forcible contact with any part of the helmet against any part of the passer’s body. This rule does not prohibit incidental contact by the mask or the helmet in the course of a conventional tackle on a passer. 

(d) A rushing defender is prohibited from forcibly hitting in the knee area or below a passer who has one or both feet on the ground, even if the initial contact is above the knee. It is not a foul if the defender is blocked (or fouled) into the passer and has no opportunity to avoid him. 

Notes: (1) A defender cannot initiate a roll or lunge and forcibly hit the passer in the knee area or below, even if he is being contacted by another player. 

(2) It is not a foul if the defender swipes or grabs a passer in the knee area or below in an attempt to tackle him, provided he does not make forcible contact with the helmet, shoulder, chest, or forearm. 

(e) A passer who is standing still or fading backward after the ball has left his hand is obviously out of the play and must not be unnecessarily contacted by an opponent through the end of the down or until the passer becomes a blocker, or a runner, or, in the event of a change of possession during the down, until he assumes a distinctly defensive position. 

However, at any time after the change of possession, it is a foul if: 

(1) an opponent forcibly hits the quarterback’s head or neck area with his helmet, facemask, forearm, or shoulder 

(2) if an opponent lowers his head and makes forcible contact with any part of his helmet against any part of the passer’s body. This provision does not prohibit incidental contact by the mask or the helmet in the course of a conventional block.

Jackson did none of these things. But if you walk a bit further down in the rulebook, you see this:

Notes: (1) When in doubt about a roughness call or potentially dangerous tactic against the passer, the Referee should always call roughing the passer.

So basically, officials can call roughing the passer whenever they want under any circumstances, even if the circumstances do not dictate the penalty, and it is in the rulebooks as such. The NFL has more than enough scandals to deal with right now, but this is absolutely unconscionable. It’s either a rule, or it isn’t. Telling officials that it’s perfectly fine to call roughing the passer whether it happened or not is a violation of the rights of every defensive player, and this “note” should be eliminated as quickly as possible.

It’s too late for Malik Jackson, and all the other defensive players who were unfairly penalized, but it has to stop now.

Roughing the passer call on Jets’ Quincy Williams proves impossibility of playing defense

Chase Young’s roughing the passer penalty reveals flaws in NFL’s rule book

Why was Texans DT Maliek Collins called for roughing the passer against the Patriots?

Houston Texans DT Maliek Collins was penalized for roughing the passer against the New England Patriots. Coach David Culley explains why.

The Houston Texans held the New England Patriots to a third-and-18 from their own 29-yard line. Mac Jones threw an incomplete pass intended for receiver N’Keal Harry that safety Justin Reid almost picked off.

However, defensive tackle Maliek Collins was hit with a roughing the passer penalty, an automatic first down. The drive continued for New England, and Jones led the Patriots 11 plays later to a game-winning 21-yard Nick Folk field goal.

The emphasis appeared to be on Collins’ incidental collision with Jones’ helmet up top, which drew criticism. However, coach David Culley after the game relayed what the officials told him as to why they threw the flag.

“I think it was one of those things where it was one of those penalties that it could have went where we didn’t make the call,” said Culley. “But he ended up making the call. And I think he made the call because Maliek was going down on the guy’s knees, the reason why the call got called. It wasn’t a roughing from a standpoint of him roughing him.”

Culley said that the call was late and that he didn’t agree with the decision from referee Scott Novak’s crew.

Said Culley: “He told us, once he went down on his knees after the play, he was down on his knees because it was called late. It wasn’t called right away.”

The Patriots beat the Texans 25-22, relegating Houston to 1-4 on the season and extending their losing streak to four games.

NFL fans hated how a questionable roughing call robbed Chase Young of a sack on Matt Ryan

What a weird call.

After posting 7.5 sacks in his rookie season, Washington Football Team defensive end Chase Young is off to a considerably slow start in 2021. He hasn’t recorded a sack and his tackle numbers are stuck in the single digits.

But during Sunday’s Week 4 matchup against the Atlanta Falcons, it sure looked like that drought came to an end at the most opportune time. The call just didn’t go Young’s way.

With the Falcons going for it on fourth and two, a scrambling Matt Ryan tried to get the ball away before Young reached him. Young appeared to catch Ryan up high while missing a tackle. In an awfully delayed response, though, Ryan’s knee went down before he threw a pass that got picked off. But none of that mattered because the officials flagged Young for roughing the passer.

NFL fans could not believe the horrendous, game-changing roughing call from Lions-Vikings

Just embarrassing.

In recent years, the NFL has gone to extreme measures to protect quarterbacks from taking hard hits because, well, the league doesn’t want its most marketable players missing time. That’s led to some awfully questionable roughing-the-passer calls.

But you’d be hard pressed to find a worse roughing call than what we were treated to during Sunday’s Week 17 game between the Vikings and Lions.

With the Vikings going for it on fourth and goal and a two-point lead in the fourth quarter, the Lions’ Tracy Walker III got to Cousins untouched on a blitz. He sacked Kirk Cousins with a textbook tackle, but there was no hesitation on the flag for roughing the passer.

Just a dreadful call.

At most, the officials ruled that Walker carried through the tackle with his body weight on Cousins, but come on. There’s no way that hit warranted a roughing penalty. The Vikings would score a touchdown thanks to the penalty.

The NFL basically lucked out that this was a meaningless game because otherwise the outrage would have been wild. NFL fans were still in disbelief.

What was Walker supposed to do there? That call changed the game.

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Chiefs DE Frank Clark fined for roughing Buccaneers QB Tom Brady

Clark will feel his roughing the passer penalties against Tom Brady in his most recent game check.

Kansas City Chiefs DE Frank Clark committed a pair of roughing the passer penalties against Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Tom Brady last Sunday. He didn’t feel much remorse for the penalties at the moment or following the game, but he’ll be feeling it in his wallet.

According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, Clark was fined $15,000 by the league for the two roughing the passer penalties. One was but a glancing blow to the helmet of Brady. A similar penalty was called against Bucs DE Jason Pierre-Paul for a glancing blow of Patrick Mahomes’ helmet. The other penalty was a bit more egregious by Clark, landing a hit on Brady after the ball had already been thrown.

Clark claimed on Friday that he was owed these penalties and that they were the first roughing the passer penalties he’d ever committed in his NFL career. That’s not entirely accurate, but they were his first roughing the passer penalties since 2017 and the first he’s committed as a member of the Chiefs. Historically, he’s been good in this regard, but it was pretty clear that some frustrations had boiled over.

The veteran defensive end also said that he told Steve Spagnuolo those will be his last roughing the passer penalties on the year. We’ll see if that statement holds true moving forward.

This is the first defensive lineman to catch a fine for the Chiefs this year, but not the first defender. DB Daniel Sorensen was fined in Week 7 for a hit on Broncos RB Philip Lindsay.

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“Total B.S.:” Lawrence, Cowboys defense criticize late penalties in loss

Just past the halfway mark in a season that was seemingly spiraling out of control, the 2-6 Cowboys surprisingly played their best game of the year against the undefeated Steelers. Dallas found itself in unfamiliar territory by leading for most of …

Just past the halfway mark in a season that was seemingly spiraling out of control, the 2-6 Cowboys surprisingly played their best game of the year against the undefeated Steelers. Dallas found itself in unfamiliar territory by leading for most of the game, sometimes by double digits. In the end, though, it was the guys in the black jerseys with the yellow pants who prevailed… thanks in large part to the guys in the black and white jerseys with the yellow flags.

The Cowboys suffered key setbacks at critical moments late in the fourth quarter, as untimely penalties extended drives and improved field position for Ben Roethlisberger and the rallying Pittsburgh offense.

While the Cowboys themselves were ultimately responsible for letting this one slip away, the subject of officiating did come up during the players’ and coaches’ postgame conferences after the heartbreaking 24-19 loss in Arlington.

“The frustrating part is that it wasn’t in our control,” defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence told reporters. “I’m not the one to complain, but that was total B.S. on that last call. Hopefully, the NFL can take that into account, and we get better from it.”

Dallas was flagged seven times for 70 yards on the afternoon. Three of those infractions were called on the Cowboys defense in the fourth quarter. But it was the last of them- roughing the passer against linebacker Jaylon Smith- that Lawrence seemed to be referring to.

“Of course I’m talking about the penalty [on Jaylon],” Lawrence snapped when asked for specifics. “I don’t know where that came from, but that’s very unacceptable. Especially in a close game like that.”

On the play, Smith was one of a number of Cowboys defenders converging on Roethlisberger as the pocket collapsed around him. As the Steelers quarterback let the ball fly through heavy traffic, Smith’s hands went up, and although he was still engaged in a block, one of his arms made glancing contact with Roethlisberger’s head.

Roethlisberger’s pass fell incomplete. But instead of facing fourth-down deep in their own end, the penalty gifted the Steelers a new set of downs with four minutes left to play. Pittsburgh ultimately scored the go-ahead touchdown on the drive two minutes and 79 yards later.

After the game, Smith struggled to explain how the play could have resulted in a flag.

“Yeah… I mean… I didn’t… Really, you know… just questionable calls,” Smith told media members via conference call. “I really didn’t do anything; I was trying to pressure the quarterback and press the pocket, put my hands up when the ball was coming out, and that’s what it was. Questionable calls, like I said. We’ve just got to keep fighting. Got to keep fighting.”

It wasn’t the only nitpicky penalty to be called against Smith as the game came down to the final minutes. On the previous Steelers drive, the fourth-year linebacker was flagged for illegal contact with Pittsburgh receiver Chase Claypool. That penalty wiped out a strip sack by Tyrone Crawford and subsequent fumble recovery and 22-yard return by Aldon Smith.

“They thought that I hit him and was just crazy over-the-top holding,” Jaylon said later of that call. “Really, he just ran into me. That’s really what it was. A few questionable calls in the game, but for us, we’ve got to control what we can control.”

That was the overarching message from Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy, who acknowledged the officiating during the hard-fought game, but chose not to expound on it for reporters.

“You can write on it as much as you want. Go for it. I’m not going to,” the coach said in his postgame remarks. “Like I said to the football team, we need to focus on the things we can do better. What was called, what wasn’t called: we don’t have control of that. I think our players did a really good job of that. You want them playing with a lot of energy; obviously, it’s a physical football team that we played today. We expected a knock-down, drag-out type game. That’s what we prepared for. At the end of it, when you’re on the edge and guys are getting after it, you’ve just got to be disciplined through those spots. I’m saying that without seeing the actual tape; I haven’t had a chance to review it. We had some tough calls, and the timing of it was a real challenge.”

Coaches often dismiss “effort” penalties that come from players simply playing the game aggressively. Those come with the sport and are very different from mental lapses like lining up offsides or committing a false start. And officials frequently allow a certain amount of physicality, especially in the closing moments of a hard-fought battle. Broadcasters call it “letting them play.”

The Cowboys’ players, coaches, and fans watching the game can certainly make a Monday-morning case that it was the officials at AT&T Stadium who played… too large a role in the outcome of Sunday’s game.

Lawrence claims the defense didn’t get much of an explanation on the field from referee Tony Corrente’s crew… and he didn’t press for one.

“Once the refs make up their mind, they’re stuck with it,” Lawrence said. “Ain’t nothing you can really say. I mean, there are some things you can say, but they ain’t going to do nothing but cause you to get another penalty.”

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