After Saturday’s 23-14 AFC divisional round loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in which some penalty calls worked against the Texans, Houston defensive end Will Anderson Jr. said, “We knew it was going to be us versus the refs going into this game.”

  • @52fighters
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    -102 days ago

    The NFL set these rules because players were retiring with brain injuries. Helmet to helmet is a penalty. I do think they need to adjust the rule for intentionality and severity but so long as the rule stands it exists for all. If a team gets the short end of the stick concerning the penalty, that’s just bad coaching or bad luck.

    • In this case they were bad calls. Even the ESPN announcers and rules analyst said they were bad calls. The issue here was poor officiating.

        • @superglue@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          19 hours ago

          I mean sure, but back the play up a second. He was standing up when the players entered there tackle. He slid down into the path of their helmets. Technically yes a penalty, but I think it just drives everyone crazy that Mahomes fishes for penalties. Those players had no time to pull up.

          • @52fighters
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            16 hours ago

            The rule sucks. I guess the agreement is the rule should be changed. But faulting a player for taking advantage of the existing rules? The rules are the same for everyone. Smart strategy involves finding a way to use existing rules to your advantage. That’s part of the competition.

            • @superglue@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              15 hours ago

              Well as the rule states, it uses the word uneccesarily. He slid right into their helmets giving them no time to pull up. As another user said, it was incidental contact on the part of the defense. I think if the NFL allowed picking up flags due to replays they would have picked that one up.

        • @njm1314@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          If it was clear helmet to helmet how come the call wasn’t helmet to helmet? That’s not the penalty that was called buddy.

          • @52fighters
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            -42 days ago

            NFL Rule 12, Section 2, Article 8 (roughing the passer) literally starts off as, “If a player uses any part of his helmet (including the top/crown and forehead/”hairline” parts) or facemask to butt, spear, or ram an opponent violently or unnecessarily.” After a few paragraphs, the rule concludes with, “If in doubt about a roughness call or potentially dangerous tactics, the covering official(s) should always call unnecessary roughness.”

            • @njm1314@lemmy.world
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              32 days ago

              Yes that is a different penalty from the one you mentioned previously thank you for catching up. I would also add that your clip shows incidental contact not anything that could be said to be used as up to butt spear or Ram an opponent. I’d also point out that it was the incorrect call. As he was a runner at that point and not a passer. Hopefully now you understand why it was such a bad call.