Forum allgemein » Sure does seem as if "When is a sack just a sack?

" is quickly becoming the NFL's new "Did that player lower his helmet too much?" or "What Johnathan Cyprien Jersey White , exactly, is a catch?"It's a fundamental element of football 鈥?how a pass-rusher is allowed to bring a QB down to the ground 鈥?and no one really seems to be clear on it at the moment.Not Clay Matthews, the Packers linebacker who's been flagged for roughing the passer in each of Green Bay's three games this season. Not Alex Smith, the Redskins quarterback who was sacked by Matthews with about as straightforward a tackle as can be on Sunday. Not Packers coach Mike McCarthy, who yelled at two officials after the call. Not players on either team or on either side of the ball."Unfortunately this league is going in a direction that a lot of people don't like. I think they're getting soft. The only thing hard about this league is the fines they levy down on guys like me that play the game hard," Matthews said after Green Bay's 31-17 loss at Washington."Nine years, I've been doing it one way in the NFL, successfully, and now it just seems as if that way doesn't work anymore. And that's frustrating," Matthews said with a huge sigh."I don't run the league office," he said, "but you'd like to see football be football."Rule 12, Section 2, Article 9 (b) of the NFL rulebook says that "a defensive player must not unnecessarily or violently throw (a passer) down or land on top of him with all or most of the defender's weight. Instead, the defensive player must strive to wrap up the passer with the defensive player's arms and not land on the passer with all or most of his body weight."That rule has been around for years, but the league's competition committee made it a point of emphasis this season. More than 30 roughing-the-passer penalties were called in this season's first two weeks alone."That was basically my key 鈥?that he landed on him with most or all of his body weight," referee Craig Wrolstad told a pool reporter Sunday."But if you've got a shoulder into him and then landed on him with most of his body weight off him or released him when he went down, then he would have been OK," Wrolstad said. "But in my judgment, I ruled that he landed on him with most or all of his body weight there."If the 15-yard penalty was assessed correctly in this instance, count McCarthy and Matthews among those who think that rule needs to be rewritten or, at the very least, reinterpreted."Somehow Dennis Kelly Jersey White ," Packers defensive lineman Kenny Clark said, "we've got to find a way to grab the quarterback and twirl our body and not land on the quarterback."Sounds impossible."What do you want the man to do?" said one of Smith's defensive teammates, Josh Norman. "When I saw it, it was not malicious, ill intent. It was just a nice form tackle."Another Redskins defender, safety D.J. Swearinger, sided with Matthews, too."They're making the game less fun," Swearinger said. "He made a great play. That's crazy."In case you missed it, here are other top topics after the NFL season's third Sunday:NO ONE KNOWS ANYTHINGNo way to know what is going to happen week to week in the NFL. The Buffalo Bills 鈥?considered by some the worst team in the league 鈥?and rookie QB Josh Allen went on the road as 16陆-point underdogs and roughed up Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings 27-6. The Redskins 鈥?coming off a 12-point loss to the Colts 鈥?thumped Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. The Detroit Lions went from 0-2 to 26-10 winners over Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the rest of the New England Patriots, who have lost by double digits twice in a row. The club that beat the Patriots by 11 last week, the Jacksonville Jaguars, turned in a stinker, a 9-6 loss to the Tennessee Titans, who started Blaine Gabbert.WATCHU TALKIN' 'BOUT, WILSON?The Miami Dolphins are off to a 3-0 start, thanks in part to a unique performance by receiver Albert Wilson in a 28-20 victory over Jon Gruden's winless Oakland Raiders. Wilson became only the fourth player in NHL history to throw a TD pass of at least 50 yards and catch a TD pass of at least 50 yards in the same game.Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at ://HowardFendrich In early 2000, a then-14-year-old Sean McVay attended Super Bowl XXXIV. In his hometown of Atlanta. Involving the then-St. Louis Rams, which won the only Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.Nineteen years later, a soon-to-be-33-year-old McVay will return to Atlanta as coach of the now-L.A. Rams, with Super Bowl LIII on the line.“I was so young at the time, but I remember it was a great game Dion Lewis Jersey White ,” McVay told reporters on Monday. “I remember, for whatever reason, I really always respected both the offenses. I thought [Titans running back] Eddie George was outstanding. [Titans quarterback] Steve McNair’s ability to create off-schedule. [Titans defensive end] Jevon Kearse, that was his rookie year where he was having a lot of success.“Then, you look offensively at [Rams quarterback] Kurt Warner and how prolific he was. I can still remember [Rams receiver] Torry Holt catching that slant. [Rams receiver] Isaac Bruce making big plays. [Rams running back] Marshall [Faulk’s] versatility. Just a fan of the game and watching that.“I’ll tell you what’s so unique, is you get a chance to be in this role and the exposure that it gets you to people that you have so much respect for. Coach [Dick] Vermeil is a guy that, he texts you after all the games and he’s been so supportive. Watching the way that he connected with those guys and wasn’t afraid to say, ‘I love you’, to these guys. I think those players could feel how much he really cared about them and how much he was invested. You talk about some of the adversity that that team, specifically being our organization, faced early on in the year when no one gave him a chance, but they kept believing. Kurt Warner went on to have such a great season. I also remember it was very icy then, so it was a real problem for us to get there, but it was a great game. My grandpa got us tickets and that was a good birthday present for me.”So McVay and his legendary memory can rattle off everything that happened in the game that the Rams won when Titans receiver Kevin Dyson was tackled just short of the end zone, right?“No. No, definitely not,” McVay said, laughing.Nineteen years from now, chances are that Sean McVay will be able to rattle off everything that will happen in 13 days, when he returns to the new Atlanta stadium built close to the site of the stadium that hosted Super Bowl XXIV.