Poor Devin Thomas

Speaking of Thomas, I think those PI calls on him are crap.

Do you think TO or hell even Moss would have gotten called for those? I think it's lame you have to "earn" your right to give a little shove (even though I didn't think the first one was a shove at all).

Since everyone seems to be acknowledging that Heyer was looking for some revenge on that hit, I find it a little funny to see that people continue to think it was clean.

I can understand why it was flagged. It took place away from the ball and at that time guys were just kinda standing around when Heyer clocked him. A play like that is bound to draw some attention from the refs, especially if they were aware of the jawing back and forth between Portis and Dockett on previous plays, which I'm sure they were. It's just not a very smart play by Heyer, but that's just my opinion on it.

The fact that a particular hit is delivered with revenge in mind does not necessarily make it a dirty one. Regardless of motivation, a hit is either delivered within the confines of the rules or it is not. And, based on the exchanges on this thread, there seems to be some difference of opinion as to why the flag was thrown--was it thrown because Heyer's shot was to the head, or because it was delivered so far away from the ball? If the latter, then, as you say, it might ( and I stress "might") be flag-worthy, but it still calls for a clarification of the rules. If a play is still going on, and a hit is delivered to the front of the body of an opposing player, where is the line between "close enough to the play to be legitimate" and "too far away from the play to be legitimate"? The fact is that Heyer, an offensive lineman, threw the hit while his quarterback still had the ball behind the line of scrimmage. If it was clearly to the head, then fine, I'll accept the call. But the opinion from the Fox booth yesterday, and others on this thread, is that it was because it was simply too far away from the football. That, in my opinion, makes the call highly questionable.

The fact that a particular hit is delivered with revenge in mind does not necessarily make it a dirty one. Regardless of motivation, a hit is either delivered within the confines of the rules or it is not. And, based on the exchanges on this thread, there seems to be some difference of opinion as to why the flag was thrown--was it thrown because Heyer's shot was to the head, or because it was delivered so far away from the ball? If the latter, then, as you say, it might ( and I stress "might") be flag-worthy, but it still calls for a clarification of the rules. If a play is still going on, and a hit is delivered to the front of the body of an opposing player, where is the line between "close enough to the play to be legitimate" and "too far away from the play to be legitimate"? The fact is that Heyer, an offensive lineman, threw the hit while his quarterback still had the ball behind the line of scrimmage. If it was clearly to the head, then fine, I'll accept the call. But the opinion from the Fox booth yesterday, and others on this thread, is that it was because it was simply too far away from the football. That, in my opinion, makes the call highly questionable.

I think the main reason it was called was due to the fact Portis and Dockett were having some words on previous plays, and the refs were probably aware that something was brewing. So given the fact that the refs were probably keeping an eye on the situation, it wasn't a wise move by Heyer.

Although i disagree with the call, thomas seems like he is getting more conifdent and more up to the speed of the nfl, his route running has improved drastically, even though on that td he didnt even need to run a route, he just ran straight and stopped down field... no1 was there jc hit him. But, you can see him improving weekly, now all cambell needs to do is work with him on timing and such things in practice, this will give cambell the confidence to throw to him more often than not.

It sucks that it got called back after that bad ass little celebration he did in the endzone.

Can't help but feel a little embarrassed after that.

i didnt see heyer hit him in the head, more like the upper chest area but i still think heyer probaly deserved a flag. But in contrast when sapp clearly cheap shotted clifton all the talk was about how it was a clean hit since the ball was still in play and you need to keep your head on a swivel etc. . . . sapps hit was gutless, his stance after the game was embarrasing.

so has the league tweaked the rule to not allow the kind of hit heyer and sapp did if the play is half way down the field or do you still have to keep you head on a swivel until the whistle? i agree with the flag on heyer, sapp should have been fined.

go skins!

The replay of the Heyer hit, in my view, clearly showed Heyer pushing the opposing player in the chest to the ground with both hands at the same time that Campbell was releasing the touchdown pass. Players are taught to play to the whistle. This hit was during the play and not to the head. How the hell was that a penalty? Just because the guy wasn't defending himself, does not make it a penalty. He should be playing to the whistle. That's how you get hurt on the football field, lolly gagging and not paying attention. Just because it was away from the ball is crap also. How is Heyer supposed to know if Campbell was scrambling and taking off running. If Heyer was lolly gagging and his man hustled and hit Campbell from behind, we would be complaining about Heyer not playing until the play was over. This was a B.S. call.

Speaking of Thomas, I think those PI calls on him are crap.

Do you think TO or hell even Moss would have gotten called for those? I think it's lame you have to "earn" your right to give a little shove (even though I didn't think the first one was a shove at all).

Burress does that on EVERY play. I couldn't believe that first one was called. Thomas really got boned... but he'll learn from it and hopefully he can adapt to be more subtle.

The replay of the Heyer hit, in my view, clearly showed Heyer pushing the opposing player in the chest to the ground with both hands at the same time that Campbell was releasing the touchdown pass. Players are taught to play to the whistle. This hit was during the play and not to the head. How the hell was that a penalty? Just because the guy wasn't defending himself, does not make it a penalty. He should be playing to the whistle. That's how you get hurt on the football field, lolly gagging and not paying attention. Just because it was away from the ball is crap also. How is Heyer supposed to know if Campbell was scrambling and taking off running. If Heyer was lolly gagging and his man hustled and hit Campbell from behind, we would be complaining about Heyer not playing until the play was over. This was a B.S. call.

I wonder if it had anything to do with the memo sent out this past week by the Commish? He sent out a memo stating that they were taking on-the-field player safety as a new area of focus. I'm thinking the officials received some kind of directive to enforce anything remotely questionable.

^^^ nice insight burgundy, i didnt know about that till you said something. it just makes sense to cut out those types of hits where players clearly let up but technically the play is still live and on-going down field.

go skins!