Mike Florio thinks that the Raven’s defensive lineman who broke Roethlisberger’s nose will be fined.
Why?
Here’s an animated gif showing the play in question. The lineman brings his arm up and over an offensive lineman so he can wrap up Roethlisberger to get the sack. Because his arm is up, it goes through the open portion of the facemask, causing the broken nose. The officials didn’t even flag the play.
Now, perhaps a 5-yard incidental facemask penalty could have been called since the tackler’s hand goes to the facemask. But he doesn’t grab it, even for a second. It immediately drops down to Roethlisberger’s body to complete the tackle. And, as stated before, the only reason it was up was because he was bringing it over the top of an offensive lineman.
For the more surly of the Steeler fans out there, I’ll say it’s Roethlisberger’s fault. If he hadn’t ducked his head then the lineman’s hand wouldn’t have hit him there in the first place.
So there’s no rational way to ascribe intent, and the closest rule infraction is an incidental facemask. There’s nothing there.
So why should there be a fine?
UPDATE: Fixed the link to the animated gif.
UPDATE2: My brother has corrected me- any kind of head contact on the QB (I assume while he’s a “passer”) is a personal foul penalty. So the Raven’s D-lineman should have been flagged. I still maintain he should not be fined for the play.
2 replies on “A Fine?”
I am not sure about the fine…but there should have been a 15 yard penalty, the refs actually missed a couple, including one on Suggs right before Ben’s ridiculous game saving shuffle pass out of bounds to save the sack…needless to say, the rules clearly state that defensive players are not allowed to contact the head of the QB in ANY way, intentional or otherwise, even placing your hand on the helmet of the QB is a roughness penalty.
I do not believe there should be a fine, simply because he broke Ben’s nose, but there should have been a penalty, regardless of the team or the player or anything. All you have to go back to is the Eagles/Colts game to see one of the worst, but most correct, illustrations of this rule. At the end of the game, Trent Cole strip sacked Manning, but brushed the back of his head with his hand in the process…result, instead of a game winning strip sack, was a 15 yard penalty and new life for Manning. It was a joke, but it was the rules and the refs applied it accurately.
Unfortunately, the refs missed a lot of calls last night that were put in place to protect guys and guys got hurt. The potential correction is that the league fines the players, since they weren’t penalized, I do not think that will happen in the broken nose case, but in the defenseless receiver case that lead to the obliteration of Heath Miller, expect a major fine.
Not arguing anything, just illustrating that there is a rule that dictates head contact of any kind and in any way against a QB is a penalty. The severity of the infraction then dictates the fine.
Didn’t know the rule about head contact. So that’s an error on my part.
But Florio sure seemed to be implying that just because his nose was broken there should be a fine.
I saw the replay of the hit on Miller. It was bad. I’ve never been a fan of that kind of stuff. Worse, it gives the Steelers more fuel for their “us-against-the-league” mentality.
I will agree with Florio on one point- the league has to come up with contact rules that make sense. If head contact on the QB is a penalty, then it’s a penalty and needs to be called ALL THE TIME. Same for any other kind of blow to the head, or below the knees.