Trent Green is out

I saw Green start to slide, then I saw him get popped. The hit itself was clean. No helmet-to-helmet. But you can't hit a sliding quarterback. If you committed to the ground at the same time, too bad. The benefit of the doubt in these situations never, ever ever goes to the defense. I've seen plays where a lineman jumps up to block a pass, and inadvertendly taps the QB on the head on a follow through. Nothing malicious... just momentum. And it's drawn a flag.

I just don't see how or why Geathers committed to the ground unless he saw Green going there. If Green is still upright at that point, that would've put Geathers at about knee level. Maybe it's just instinct, to hit the quarterback whatever he does. But you can't touch him once he slides.

 

Once a knee is down on the slide.

 

Whatever. The point is Green was CLEARLY sliding when he was hit. He didn't just start to slide... he was well into the slide.

 

Are you kidding me? Herm shut that reporter down.

 

Trent Green might have been sliding, but I will say this -- he still needs to learn how to slide. You don't begin to slide when the defender is lunging at you in midair, you start it when he's 3 or 4 yards away. That was Green's big mistake.

 

I don't think he expected to get hit when he slid. It's not as though the hit came as soon as Green's backside hit the ground. He was making like Rickey Henderson when he got hit.

 

Of course he didn't expect to get hit when he slid. But if a defender has already left his feet to make a play, then there's nothing that defender can do to prevent himself from making some contact when said quarterback suddenly decides to slide at the last moment. When a quarterback chooses the hook slide, he needs to do so yards before anyone can make contact with him. Green didn't do that in this instance.

And that's a shame because I've always liked Green, he's always been a class act. But he needs to learn how to slide.

 

Uh, the point is that for a guy who says 'you play to win the game,' Herm almost never plays to win. A guy who runs draws on third-and-long and uses vanilla coverages ad nauseam is playing to keep it close and steal it in the fourth quarter or OT, not to win.

 

Hello?? You play to lose a handful of yards in an AFC semifinal game before attempting a field goal in overtime in the toughest place to kick in the NFL!!! HELLO!!!!

I wish the Jets had beaten the Steelers in '04. The Patriots might still be running up the score on them in the AFC title game.

 

In Weeks 10 and 15, we will be fortunate enough to observe legendary coaching battles: Art Shell vs. Herm Edwards for the title of "Who is the worst coach the NFL?" It shall be epic viewing.

BYH, funny you mention the Jets' loss in the 2004 Divisional round. I was talking with a co-worker last week, and he said that had the Jets won that game, they would have gone into New England and beaten the Patriots.

I began to laugh. The Patriots strolled into Giants Stadium on December 26, 2004, and promptly steamrolled the Jets, 23-7. It was a game that I covered, and I vividly remember the Patriots doing whatever they damn well pleased to a Jets team that needed to win to clinch a playoff berth.

Had the Jets beaten the Steelers, I would have put all the money I had in my checking account at the time on the Pats. There was no way they were going to lose, not to the Jets and certainly not to a Herm Edwards-coached team.

 

We know damn well that if Brady, either Manning or Roethlisberger had been hit instead of Green, not only would a 15-yarder had been called, but probably an ejection.

 

Roethlisberger took a helmet to the knee last year in San Diego and missed a couple games because of it. No flags. Just saying.