Purple Reign wrote:
I also thought it was a smart play by Peterson. Some here were saying it was the right call since Bradford was retreating and out of the play. But that is exactly the same way Bradford acted the previous time they ran that play and he ended up getting the ball and throwing it downfield. Peterson just prevented Bradford from being able to do it again. If you line up as a wide receiver you should expect to get hit as it is legal to chuck a wide receiver within 5 yards. He just gave him a 2 handed shove, it wasn't like he lowered his helmet or anything. Overall I thought the refs made more than the normal number of bad/missed calls today - on both sides. Something has to be done about the current level of officiating.
I completely agree. If that call had gone against us, I'd have been pretty upset. Bradford could just lay down and avoid contact, as manly as that would be
.
There was a similar situation in the SNF game between the Pack and Skins. Rodgers slid head first twice; on both occasions he tried to get up and continue to advance the ball since he went untouched, but the refs whistled it dead because he came to a stop. Collinsworth commented that given Rodger's intelligence, he fully expected him to take advantage of the situation the next chance he got, i.e. slide, but get up before coming to a stop and thus catch the Skins unaware for a huge gain. I think it's fine to protect the QBs, but if they start exploiting the rules in this way, I'm all for them getting what's due.
Russell Wilson caught a TD pass yesterday too. If teams want to put QBs in these roles, they need to be ready for them to get hit.
