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The NFL has long been a league where tackling quarterbacks has not only been allowed, but expected and encouraged.
That, however, all seemed to change over the past few days when it apparently became illegal to do that and now defensive players are wondering what they should do when they get to the quarterback and fans are furious about what the refs are doing to a game that they love.
In case you missed it, NFL refs made two absolutely horrible roughing the passer calls in Week 5. The first happened Sunday when Falcons defensive lineman Grady Jarrett sacked Tom Brady on a key third down play with just over three minutes left in the game. It looked like any sack we’ve seen over the years but the ref threw the flag and later claimed that Jarrett unnecessarily threw Brady to the ground, which was an absurd thing to say.
refs called this roughing the passer on 3rd down and i genuinely do not know what Grady Jarrett could have done differently pic.twitter.com/VX6i0UpJiL
— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) October 9, 2022
That was a terrible call that even Brady couldn’t defend after the game. It also allowed the Bucs to hold on to the ball and run out the clock and get a six-point win. It was a truly awful call that had a huge impact on the game and left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.
Then Monday night the refs in the Raiders-Chiefs game said “hold my beer” to the Falcons-Bucs officials and made an even worse roughing the passer call on Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones after he sacked Derek Carr on what again looked like a normal sack.
Chris Jones gets called for roughing the passer pic.twitter.com/QiTlE3CbiL
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthewCFB) October 11, 2022
The only explanation I can think of for that one is that the refs thought Jones could fly and that he should have used his super powers to fly away from Carr before the QB hit the ground. There really is no other way to explain the call they made. Jones tackled Carr, they both fell to the ground, and a flag was thrown. It was embarrassing and infuriating.
I know the NFL wants to protect players, and especially quarterbacks. But the league can’t have refs making calls like these that don’t do anything to protect the players and instead do everything to tear apart the game. These two calls were so bad and had big impacts on games and that just can’t happen again, though we all know they will.
Roger Goodell, you gotta do something man, or this is only going to get so much worse.
Quick hits: Davante Adams shoves man to ground after loss… Mahomes livid at Raiders… Embarrassing final play for Raiders… And more.
– Here’s everything we know about Davante Adams shoving someone to the ground as he made his way off the field last night.
– Patrick Mahomes was so heated at the Raiders after a Chiefs TD.
– The Raiders’ final play of last night’s game was an embarrassing one.
– Here are five college programs that should try to hire Matt Rhule, who was fired by the Panthers on Monday.
