Targeting Call

[gmoney44]

That was the thing for me with the hit on Cook. The defensive guy wasn't making an attempt to tackle. He launched his shoulder into his head in a way that was dangerous to the neck. If he wasn't crossing his arms over his chest and trying to lay him out with his shoulder, it would be ok. Make an attempt to tackle, not hit.

That’s what pisses me off. You still see guys lowering their head and launching themselves blindly with the crown of the helmet and their shoulders. There is no attempt to tackle. They are trying to destroy the ball carrier.

I hope my boys don’t play football because I can’t imagine watching them play Russian Roulette every game and practice. Football has regressed back in terms of protecting players this year.

 

[Consigliere]

The issue I have is with the process that allows the flag to be picked up after review. I understand the desire to review every targeting call as the penalty to the player is very severe. But the intentional blow to the head or neck that brought the flag out should still be enforced as a personal foul. There is a significant percentage of instances where review reverses a call of targeting on the field presumably because the review official is looking for indisputable visual evidence that targeting HAS been committed before banishing a player from the game. So it seems to indicate the officials on the field are unable to consistently call targeting correctly . Perhaps the call on the field should just be for an unnecessary roughness personal foul and the replay booth should buzz down if they want to review for targeting.

 

[Millhouse]

It was right in front of me. I had no doubt it was a target. To me it was the perfect example of a target. I have not seen or heard any report on the call. What happened??

What happened was this league is an idiotic backwards hillbilly social club. I'd rather have less money, worse players, and play in games that aren't stupid. It feels like an absolute waste of time to be in this league

 

[Millhouse]

It was right in front of me. I had no doubt it was a target. To me it was the perfect example of a target. I have not seen or heard any report on the call. What happened??

Also, he did the obvious hold the head concussion move, shouldn't have kept playing, fumbled again later

With these games bring so pointless, I don't like keeping guys out there.

Angeli shouldn't have been out there. Calf strains lead to Achilles tears. The season is over now. Then you have this kid taking more shots after obvious targeting. It's like we thought he wasn't targeted either

 

[sufandu]

someone blew a whistle because they felt progress had been stopped. yet that was never discussed on the broadcast. I always thought a blown whistle trumps all.

Oh, I didn't hear that. Yeah, if the whistle blew, everything should have been dead right there. Did the hit come after you heard the whistle? It would've been a late hit, if it did.

 

[DonutHole]

This rule needs to be changed. Especially in light of CTE, and especially when they announced this week that the Park Avenue shooter who was trying to get to the NFL offices did indeed have CTE after studying his brain. This person only played through HS, so what does this tell you about all of those hits to the head? To me any helmet to helmet on any portion of the head/helmet should be targeting. Unless the player is blocked into the other player.

Hitting a defenseless player. If not targeting, a penalty for unnecessary roughness. They missed a targeting call during the Penn State game last night. Helmet to helmet hit that even disturbed my wife who hates football!

 

[Chip]

I think the nuances of targeting have gotten everyone away from the reason targeting started. It was to protect players. Cook was a defenseless receiver going down who took an unnecessary shot to the head.

They spend all that time looking at how the crown of his helmet hit the player and just completely ignored that it’s a personal foul for unnecessary roughness on a defenseless receiver.

ACC needs to look at this. They didn’t protect Cook’s brain and so that player now thinks he can do that again.

 

[TexanMark]

Piedmont Protection Society

 

[Millhouse]

What also sucks about it was that it was obviously a hit they didn't want in the game THAT TOOK THE BALL AWAY FROM US

You have to come up with some kind of call that at least doesn't reward the team for that hit. Common sense

might be one of those unintended consequences of a very harsh penalty making them less likely to call the foul

If you murder everyone who targets, they will never call it, and the players will quickly learn

 

[upperdeck]

Refs have a clear out if they want it..

Call unnecessary roughness with targeting. Much like they call roughing the QB with targeting, Then they still enforce that part even if the targeting goes away. That is really the intent of the rule.

Much like punching is not really allowed but now guys do it to attack the ball and never get called for it even if they miss the ball and hit the player.

 

[GreekFreak]

I think the nuances of targeting have gotten everyone away from the reason targeting started. It was to protect players. Cook was a defenseless receiver going down who took an unnecessary shot to the head.

They spend all that time looking at how the crown of his helmet hit the player and just completely ignored that it’s a personal foul for unnecessary roughness on a defenseless receiver.

ACC needs to look at this. They didn’t protect Cook’s brain and so that player now thinks he can do that again.

Fantastic post!

 

[OttosShoes]

Also, he did the obvious hold the head concussion move, shouldn't have kept playing, fumbled again later

With these games bring so pointless, I don't like keeping guys out there.

Angeli shouldn't have been out there. Calf strains lead to Achilles tears. The season is over now. Then you have this kid taking more shots after obvious targeting. It's like we thought he wasn't targeted either

Yeah, it's easy to focus on the refs, the conference and Duke, but there's also an appearance we fielded a player in the aftermath of a concussion. I dunno. This whole thing sucks.

Fran even said as much.

Fran is a good sport and extremely reluctant to publicly blame anybody but himself. He also literally had the cameras pointed at him when he said that--if he had cried foul in a 38-3 press conference, the narrative isn't 'bad refs', it's 'Fran Brown is a sore loser'. He said the right thing, but I don't believe we actually know what he thinks.