Broncos @ Bengals Monday Night Cheap Shot

[Simbio]

If anyone watched the game last night, there was a "block" from an offensive lineman on a defensive lineman, pretty much standing side by side, where the ball was nowhere near them, and the offensive lineman just dropped on the ankle of the defensive lineman. The announcers were calling it a legal block (it fractured his ankle.) Is this really a legal block in the NFL? I can't imagine that it is...

Comments?

[Warrenkicker]

I would say that it was a very "cheap" looking shot. I know that the NFL has more liberal rules about contact between linemen. It seems that contact like this is legal in the "tackle box" where this block did occur. But this play seemed like it was beyond the spirit of the rule. There was no reason that the OL needed to make that kind of block against the DL. It was dangerous contact and thus is illegal at all levels on most areas of the field. I wonder if the league is reviewing it and if anything will come out of it.

[jimbulger1]

By the letter of the law the block happened in the free blocking zone so the hit was "legal" However it was un necessary The offensive line man could have hit him high just as easily and taken him out of the play. Now for all our U's and WH out there if you see the same play in HS do you flag it???

[Patton]

Originally posted by jimbulger1
By the letter of the law the block happened in the free blocking zone so the hit was "legal"

From everything I understand, it was legal by NFL rules. In NFHS, this would have been illegal because the ball had left the FBZ. I'm a Bronco through and through, and I even think it was a cheap shot.

[Mike Simonds]

As I was watching the game with my dad last night, I told him that the offensive lineman could have accomplished his assignment with a block from the side above the waist. He probably could have even knocked his man down because the defensive lineman was looking into the backfield.

Legal yes for NFL, but for NFHS since the ball was already out of the free blocking zone this would have been a foul for an illegal block below the waist.

I had a call similar to this over the past weekend. The blocker cut his man at the ankles from the side but it occurred during a sweep in the open field and the defender was moving his feet at the time of the contact so his cleats were not planted in the turf.

I believe that in close line play the chances for injury are greater because the linemen are planting their feet and because of all the bodies in the free-blocking zone the chances for being cut and rolling over another player increases the risk of serious injury.

Unfortunately, I've called chop block fouls at least 4 or 5 times this season... Seems like players are just too tempted to not avoid these types of contact fouls when a regular legal block above the waist would do just as well.

P.S. Also, because the block was from the side, the defender could not put this hands down on the blocker to help deflect the force of the block. To me this is what made the block a cheap shot, in addition to the fact that the blocker could have accomplished his assignment with a block above the waist.

[Edited by Mike Simonds on Oct 26th, 2004 at 02:52 PM]

[Snake~eyes]

Originally posted by Patton

From everything I understand, it was legal by NFL rules. In NFHS, this would have been illegal because the ball had left the FBZ. I'm a Bronco through and through, and I even think it was a cheap shot.

I think the linemen who did the block thought it was a cheapshot and I think he felt bad.

[PSU213]

There is a difference between a block being illegal and it being a legal cheap shot. While I suppose we could debate if it should be flagged in a HS game (and I don't want to get into was the ball in the FBZ and whatnot), at that level, there is not as much of a burden on the officials to "prevent" injuries, etc. (unless of course, it is a revenue generating player, which a D-lineman is not).

On a somewhat related note, in the Purdue-Wisconsin game the weekend before last, there was no snap due to a false start, but an O-lineman right at the whistle, blocked a D-lineman low (it would have been a legal block had the play run, and, as I said, it was right as the whistle was blowing for the false start, so it was not late at all). The announcers said it was "a legal chop block."

[Snake~eyes]

Originally posted by PSU213
There is a difference between a block being illegal and it being a legal cheap shot. While I suppose we could debate if it should be flagged in a HS game (and I don't want to get into was the ball in the FBZ and whatnot), at that level, there is not as much of a burden on the officials to "prevent" injuries, etc. (unless of course, it is a revenue generating player, which a D-lineman is not).

On a somewhat related note, in the Purdue-Wisconsin game the weekend before last, there was no snap due to a false start, but an O-lineman right at the whistle, blocked a D-lineman low (it would have been a legal block had the play run, and, as I said, it was right as the whistle was blowing for the false start, so it was not late at all). The announcers said it was "a legal chop block."

Often I hear coaches and players complain because they're getting chop blocked. It is at that point I ask them to define chop blocking, they usually don't even try, but some give a shotty definition of blocking below the waste.