The remedy is Unsportsmanlike Conduct, 15 yards from previous spot. But yeah, it's tough to call. Perhaps the slide is too simple, and offensive players need a visual cue (à la the fair catch signal) to advise they're giving themselves up at a particular spot. I'd suggest both hands up in the air, a truly defenseless posture.
I think your point about the blitz is correct, but I saw them generally lost in space; i.e. pulling or folding then stopping or slowing down like what they were seeing was unexpected. Preparation and coaching.
Get rid of the slide, you run past the line of scrimmage and you are a runner. If you don’t want your QB to risk contact have them throw it away
Add to that Sirianni's sideline blowup with Reddick (Whom Patricia decided to use in pass coverage at the end of the season for some reason) and DeVonta Smith being upset at times this season and you couldn't help but think something was going on behind the scenes.
Player safety. The concept is so the runner is not hit at all. Which rarely happens.
The slide rule isn't QB specific. Any runner can slide.
One of the biggest problems to me is simple... the refs do not actually apply Note #2 well at all. They have an incredibly strict view of "unavoidable" than encourages late slides because any contact gets flagged.
This is what I was getting at last night. I understand why the league wants to protect QBs, and that there's an added entertainment factor with guys like Lamar and Allen who can run. But there needs to be a recognition that not just anyone can do it (helps to be big), and that there's an inherent risk to it. Under the current rules, QBs get to have it both ways.
This gets to one of my biggest pet peeves with broadcasters and on-air rules experts, which is when they watch a slow-motion replay and scoldingly say "That's going to get called 100% of the time" - as if the defender should somehow just avoid it every time when it's a lot tougher in real time, especially when you're trying to stop a QB who can really run and knows how to use the rule to his advantage.
It's not really about fairness, it's about keeping the QB in the game at all costs.
And just on gut, hits on post-LOS QBs get a lot more scrutiny than any other position. Like, if that play was exactly the same but James Cook went into a slide for whatever reason and then got hit by Jack, they don't call a penalty as I don't think there's a reasonable argument that Myles Jack could pull up on that...unless Jack was specifically playing for a world where RBs regularly slid in that territory to avoid a hit.
100% results driven. Panic. I mean I didn't like the D at that point in time either but I'm a fan and I'm allowed to panic. Sirianni totally owned the move and it's blown up in his face. Can't believe what a fall from grace this guy has had in under a year.
Yeah, felt like a panic move once he acknowleged that the defense didn't have the horses, so he handed it to Patricia to see if he could work some magic.... he couldn't, their back 7 is garbage and it's really on Roseman, but Siriani will probably take the bullet.
There's a lot of blame to go around, but yeah if anyone is getting a bullet in the head it's Sirianni over Howie for sure. I like Roseman but it's time for a philosophical shift away from their long-held belief that LBs aren't important and so they don't value them highly enough. They've never paid up for LBs and when they finally developed one in TJ Edwards they let him walk to Chicago and he was sorely missed. Same is true to a lesser extent at the safety position; they could have matched Detroit's offer for CJ Gardner-Johnson and didn't and that bit them too. I guess the counter is that they did invest a 3rd round pick in Nakobe Dean who's had injury issues, but whatever - the back 7 of the D was absolutely garbage. I can't believe how badly Bradberry fell off a cliff. His contract may make him uncuttable for '24 but I bet Slay is gonzo.
Slay signed a new deal in May.... he would have a $35M cap hit if cut. Byard is 100% a cut (save $13M), Bradberry could be cut designated post June 1, but saves no money this year and clogs next year).
This is what's great about this message board; fans of other teams offering great analysis as to what went wrong.
I think the biggest issue with Desai was the fact that the defense could not get off the field on 3rd down.
Yes! It was reported that they actually first took away Desai's third down playcalling. Can you believe that? Like, you're the man and you're calling the D, except when 3rd down hits then we're doing this other thing. And then eventually it's "sorry you're not even calling 1st or 2nd down anymore we're going to jam your system onto Matt Patricia".
I'm not as schooled in the cap as I used to be but I think they could designate him a post-June 1 cut and he'd only count $11M against the cap, but I could be reading it all wrong. But you're likely correct that Slay isn't gonzo like I had said. I think I'm fine with that but they really need some of their very young and raw CB's to develop or to invest heavily in CB via an early draft pick or FA. Bradberry was a total embarrassment and should not be starting.
Yeah I couldn't figure out post June 1, I think it would be significantly less, but of course that is at the expense of next year.
I found myself nodding my head during this entire post. This season was so frustrating for so many reasons.
It's been pointed out over this year that Hurts has largely ignored the middle of the field, as well. It seems like their offense this year was "win your matchup" which works, until it doesnt.
Gannon drove everyone nuts with his passive soft-zone, but I'm really starting to think he got more out of this defense than Desai ever could. Granted, he also had CJGJ and TJ Edwards. But he also was able to either hide Bradberry or get the most out of him. I know CB are prone to just losing it, but Bradberry was horrid this year. Tackling went from a strength of his to whatever we saw on Monday night.
Maybe it's a short(er) QB thing? Russell Wilson has refused to throw over the middle for years.
Baker is also not that tall and he actually uses the middle of the field. He does get a lot of passes batted down but still, it's better than giving up an entire area altogether.
https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/report-jalen-hurts-has-been-dealing-with-a-knee-bruise
While it does, the issue is that the leaguen is protecting QBs and said QBs are taking adavntage of this. Mahomes going out of bounds and getting touched by someone has been brought up in relation to this.
The axiom is: Unnecessary roughness fouls can can be hard and can be late. If the hit is a little hard and a little late, let it go. If the hit is very hard OR very late, flag it.
