During last night’s Thursday Night Football game between the Ravens and Dolphins, Baltimore QB Joe Flacco ran with the ball and was heading toward a first down when he went into a slide. Dolphins linebacker Kiko Alonso was charging at Flacco and hit him hard in the head with his forearm, knocking his helmet off and effectively knocking him out. (Flacco wasn’t unconscious but he was dazed; he weakly raised his arm and reportedly couldn’t remember where he was.) Flacco was taken out of the game and was put into concussion evaluation.
Alonso was penalized for a personal foul but it wasn’t ruled as flagrant at the time so he stayed in the game. This was a controversial decision and you can read some good points in this Bleacher Report article:
Some say that Flacco slid late, the hit wasn’t intended to cause harm, and Alonso was moving full speed and didn’t have time to avoid him. Others dispute that, saying Flacco slid in time, that Alonso had plenty of time to make a decision once he saw the slide begin, and that since he led with his shoulder/arm instead of trying to grab Flacco that he was trying to drill him on purpose. Comparisons are being made to Danny Trevathan who similarly made an infamous hit that wasn’t ruled flagrant at the time but after an outcry he was given a 2 game suspension later appealed and reduced to a single game.
I was curious what others think. I just feel bad for Flacco, I’m no Ravens fan and often make fun of him but that hit was brutal and seeing him afterward just made me hope he turns out okay.
I’ll preface my statement by saying I’m a Dolphins fan, but I also consider myself a reasonable fan, too.
I think it was the right call to penalize him for the hit, NOT penalize the mini-scrum afterward and NOT suspend him. It was definitely a case of “he hit him harder than necessary” given it was a QB running (and not much of a running qb either, he ain’t Cam), but it is literally impossible for him to change his momentum any more than he already did.
If you look at the video you can see he lead with his shoulder and went low; it just so happened that Flacco went lower. The hit wasn’t intentionally dirty, nor was it malicious. Kiko’s biggest fault was he was running a bit too hard and fast knowing a qb was running it.
Flacco’s slide was a bit late but I still think Alonso should be suspended (especially since he wasn’t ejected for this game). Everyone talks about teaching players to not lead with their helmets, but they shouldn’t be leading with the point of their shoulders either. Whatever happened to squaring up and wrapping the guy? That’s why a lot of these hits happen, defenders turn themselves into missiles leading with their head/shoulders. Alonso was clearly trying to just lay a big lick on him instead of properly tackling him.
No problem with Alonso’s hit. Flacco’s slide was late and that’s all on him. At some point, QB’s need to realize when it’s not worth it to slide. If he hadn’t slid, the hit would have been fine and he would not have been hit in the head.
I think the slide was late which opened him up to contact. But I think Alonso was saying to himself “I’m gonna lay some kind of hit on this guy”, and the slide (while late) was still enough that meant Flacco was low enough that the only hit was gonna be to the head.
So was the slide late? Yeah. Was the hit a penalty? Yeah. Does it deserve a suspension? Maybe, I don’t feel strongly one way or the other.
The slide was late, and by the time Flacco dropped, Alonso was committed to his “trajectory”. From the angle commonly shown, it looks like Alonso comes out of nowhere to blast Flacco in the head, but watching from another shows him already going low when Flacco dropped. Flacco’s slide wasn’t a typical slide, he just straight dropped to his ass in mid-step. As Alonso had his helmet up and could see how it was developing, you can see he pulled off a little at the end.
I see Alonso getting a hefty fine, and I won’t argue with that. I don’t see him getting a suspension, nor would I agree with one. That hit was far more on Flacco dropping when he knew he was going to get hit than Alonso trying to hurt him.
The slide was late so Flacco is partially responsible for what happened. You can’t tell if Alonso meant to hit him that hard, so no suspension. If the QB is going to be protected in this way they should have a penalty for late slides so the defense doesn’t have to anticipate when to use a real tackle, or specify the conditions where the QB just has to be touched to end his forward progress.
I think you can tell that Alonso meant to hit him that hard, but additionally you can tell that Alonso meant to hit him in the midsection. When suddenly Flacco’s head was occupying that space Alonso had no time to react. My call would be 15-yard penalty, no fine or suspension, and QBs need to slide early enough to give defenders time to react, not slide at all, or suffer the consequences.
Far as I know you can’t use replay or challenge to reverse a penalty or cause one to be one assessed.
It’s legit to sanction him after the game based on review, but not based on the physical outcome, only on whether a rule was violated. If the rule was violated, then considering the physical outcome becomes legit.
I think that’s what happened, I just don’t think the linked clip tells me that definitively enough to penalize him further. And I’d prefer your rule, but I’m not optimistic that’s how it will turn out.
The quarterback (or any ball carrier) doesn’t need to be touched down after a slide, or in any situation where they are giving themselves up and voluntarily stopping forward progress.
The more I watch it, the more I feel bad for Alonso. Flacco drops at the 12 yard line. He gets blasted at the 10. By the time he dropped, Alonso had about enough time to think “Shit” before Flacco forgot his name, birthday, or why he’s wearing a funny outfit surrounded by brutes.
You don’t tackle an upright runner the way Alonso hit Flacco. He had enough time to adjust to put his shoulder into a sliding player which means he had enough time to adjust and not hit him. This hit does seem to embody the problem of the violence inherent in football. Alonso’s hit knocked the opposing QB out of the game and these hard hits are celebrated and encouraged. The flip side of that is Flacco’s chances of CTE and other long term mental issues have increased by a not insignificant amount.
It looked to me like Alonso was trying to put his shoulder into the torso of an upright runner. When Flacco started to drop down into a slide, his head wound up where his torso had been.
Right. Helmets don’t get knocked off from direct blows that compress it against the head. They come off when hit at a sharp angle, like your hands do when you take it off.
That’s exactly how and where you hit an upright runner - in the gut and hips. He didn’t spear him with his helmet, he didn’t launch himself from yards away, and he kept his head up. He landed a big hit, but that’s the price an Untouchable pays when he leaves the pocket.
The only remedy for a defense that will always avoid this situation is to make the quarterback even more protected outside of the pocket, and not tackle him at all if he might slide - which will be abused, very quickly, by every quarterback with at least two firing neurons (AKA all of them) but always being about to slide, but just taking another step all the way to the end zone. Or you make a rule that quarterbacks must slide at least 5 yards before contact, which screws big runners like Cam or quarterbacks willing to take a hit in order to get the first down. Flacco tried to have it both ways, and won’t make that mistake again.
If you freeze frame when Flacco is hit, his butt is on the ground and he is leaning back. That means his head is at knee to thigh height when he is hit. Even if we go with your charitable aiming point you’ve proved my point. Alonso adjusted his aim downwards a foot or so to hit Flacco in the head.