Why was the Palmer Hit a Penalty?

[CRA]

The replay looked to me like Hardy led with his helmet into the QB instead of his pads. You can see his facemask go right into Palmer's ribs. I don't necessarily disagree with that call, but the no-call on Cam was absolute bullsh*t

You teach 10 yr olds to look at what you are tackling. Hardy didn't lower his lead....his eyes are buried in Palmer's ribs. If that is illegal they should just put red shirts on QBs.

[CarolinaPanthers8789]

^ Be careful what you wish for lol

[KSpan]

He lowered his helmet and launched himself. But imo it was a clean hit. Violent but clean. Carson Palmer knocked himself out of the game by holding the ball too long.

He neither lowered his head nor launched himself, which is why it was a clean hit.

[jayflip]

Soon they will just have each player play as themselves in madden for player safety. But then one player will suffer a seizure from the bright lights emitted from the gameplay, and they will ban that too. It will eventually be players playing the football equivalent of magic the gathering.

[Marguide]

The rules clearly state (and I quote):

If a defensive player hits an offensive player very hard, and said offensive player falls down and is in apparent pain, the defensive player shall be called for unnecessary roughness. If the offensive player is a quarterback, all hits that make fans of the defensive team say "yeah, baby" will be deemed excessively rough. The only exception to this rule is when the quarterback is 6'5" and 250 lbs or greater, in which case they can be hit with impunity.

[CarolinaPanthers8789]

I will say upon further review, Hardy's face mask was in Palmer's back (head was up though), however, the tackle didn't look to be malicious. Just a clean hard hit.

[JawnyBlaze]

As this pic from another thread shows, Hardy's head was not lowered. His facemask was in Palmer's back/side, and he didn't launch. He drove through him. Pretty much text book tackle all around, but because a QB got hurt, it was an automatic flag. If Hardy gets fined, I'd be outraged.

[pantherfan82]

Hardy just reminded everybody how football is supposed to be played

[PanthersAlv]

If I recall, Palmer was stepping forward to throw the Ball and Hardy had already made the commitment to position he was tackling. Thus, Palmer stepping up even a half step put Hardy's helmet in his Back instead of his shoulder in his ribs.

[5158Poundin]

It was a bull poo call as I was sitting in the section closest to the play. It was a clean but hard hit and Hardy got flagged because Palmer got hurt. The referees were total poo during the game and made horrendous calls and no-calls all day long. The only other crew I saw be so worthless was against Dallas a few years back. Flag happy except when it came to late or unsportsman like play on Cam. Also, the most I have seen fans boo the zebras.

[Cape Fear Cat]

he "led with the helmet" apparently

any time a quarterback gets jacked up now they toss the flag first and ask questions later

I was thirty yards from it, watched it happen, savored it on replay, and was outraged when the flag came. That was the cleanest, nastiest QB hit I have seen in a long time - and I watch a LOT of football! But it was like that all day long. If they want them to play two-hand touch or flag, they should just go ahead and put the QBs in red "don't hit me" jerseys like in practice and be done with it. I can see penalizing a flagrant hit, and I'm all for player safety. But yesterday looked a lot like the pussification of the game to me.

[Snake]

I kinda miss the replacement refs. Yea they were terrible but they did let the players play. They protect immobile QBs way too much.

[CatMan72]

He actually hit him with his shoulder.

[Nicbsbll2]

As this pic from another thread shows, Hardy's head was not lowered. His facemask was in Palmer's back/side, and he didn't launch. He drove through him. Pretty much text book tackle all around, but because a QB got hurt, it was an automatic flag. If Hardy gets fined, I'd be outraged.

This picture shows everything you need to know about the play. Head up, feet driving. Clean hit.