Welker thought he was playing soccer on that play. He flopped like he was playing for the Spanish national team.
I personally thought it was a dumb penalty, the ball was overthrown and out of reach and Smith was in an easy position to light up welker without hitting him in the helmet. He purposely went for the helmet an easy call for the officials IMO. Now the third and long penalty on Poole was a terrible call.
I thought it was a bs call, not much different then old Ray Ray the Murderer blasting a defenseless Keller the week before. If you going to call hitting a defenseless WR a penalty then may as well call blindside hits on the QB a penalty and anybody not getting tackled from the front is clearly defenseless as well. I'm surprised the amount of of people going after Smith because I thought it was a clean play. I thought Welker sold it but to me Smith was trying to make a play, not hurt Welker. There is absolutely no way Smith led with his helmet and anybody saying so should rewatch the replay because he hits him with his arms first and after the initial contact is made his helmet hits Welkers. The issue I have is that if Welker catches that ball he is in the same exact position and the same play takes place. I was surprised to hear Phil Simms strongly oppose it being a penalty. He also pointed out another penalty that was not thrown for illegal formation in the same drive. The question is last year when Welker was absolutely obliterated against (I'm forgetting) was the defensive player penalized because that was much worse then Smith's yesterday. Welker looked like he was playing for Italy in the world cup the way he sold that. I doubt he was injured the way he was running precise routes later in that drive.
That hit strikes me as part bounty hunting and part revenge. The Patriots headhunted David Strickland in the second game last season and it opened up the bubble screens for Welker. No reason to complain about this one. That hit was by design.
If I remember rightly, the hit wasn't all that late, just high and leading with the forearm. I also don't think that Smith didn't know that Welker had not caught the ball. If he did and the play was by design, then it worked, rightly or wrongly depending on what colour you wear. I like Smith and hope he doesn't change his style, if your going to give away a penalty, might as well make it worthwhile down the road.
I wanna know what eric went and said to welker in the huddle. Probably " I don't give a fuck about that flag, you bring that shit over here again and ima spank you" Haha
I love Brady's post game comments about it.... “You hate to see that on any side of the ball because you know the kinds of repercussions to those kind of contact hits. They don’t go over very well. But he’s doing good.” They don't go over well? Tom it was a clean hit, he didn't lead with his helmet. If your gonna whine about contact stop playing. It was no different then Ray Lewis's hit on Keller last week. It's football, guys are gonna get lit up sometimes.
Check out this post game interview with Welker, is it me or do his eyes look F'd up? http://www.patriots.com/games/index.cfm?ac=gamereportdetail&pid=44628&pcid=82
It wasn't a clean hit which was why he got flagged, the ball was well over hos head and he took a big shot at a defenseless receiver. The Lewis hit on Keller was more violent but w/in the rules as he was seperating him from the ball.
No he got flagged because it was the Pats and his reputation, I watched the replay over and over and didn't see a penalty. Am I biased? Absolutely but you'll never convince me it was dirty play or that it warranted a flag. I trust Simms opinion on the play and he defended Smith and said it was a bad call.
If he did that against anyone he would have been flagged, it was such an obvious call to make. The Pats may get the benefit of closer calls but that wasn't close. I was at the game and had a great view, I haven't watched the tape yet. Maybe on replay it didn't look as bad as it did live. I'll let you know what I think after I watch it again.
Yeah....but the Cuntiff flop was the worst of them. And subsequent to that (I watched it again yesterday) the Wilson penalty in the endzone should have been a noncall. Whosyermama tried to rest his arm over Wilson basically initiating the contact, and it looked to me like Wilson had position....(Can't be sure because I erased it afterward)
