FanPost

Illegal Hits Need to be Reviewable

In the Bengals 20-19 defeat to the Dallas Cowboys Sunday, there were a plethora of missed calls that could have gone the other way.

None of which played a role in the lost.

However, one call, Reggie Nelson's "hit to a defenseless receiver", stirred the pot around football.

Cincy Jungle has already wrote on it, you can find it here.

I would like to take a look at the bigger picture. The NFL needs to add "head to head contact" and "hits to a defenseless receiver" to the list of reviewable plays.

Most football fans don't know what is a legal hit, and what is not. Even I am unsure what constitutes a flag, and what constitutes a highlight reel play. From what I can gather:

A) Any hit to the head will be flagged.

B) any hit that involves the defensive player's head will be flagged.

C) Any hit low will likely result in a flag.

D) Any big hit will likely be flagged.

The plays are too fast for an official to see everything. The only time a call is obvious is when the receiver's head snaps back after being hit there (like what happened during the drive before Nelson's hit).

Every other hit occurs in under a second, and from what I can tell it are these type of plays that officials miss the most. It's not their fault, its the fault of the NFL and not allowing them to review it.

The art of hitting a receiver when he is catching the ball in 21st century football is to keep your shoulder pads even with the chest of your opponent. You must keep your head up, and you have to be aware of where the ball is. The object is to put your shoulder right in the chest/gut area of your intruder as he is touching the rock.

But even if you do this perfectly, if there is a loud noise or people start cheering, you may still get flagged.

In the case of the Nelson hit, it may come from an official 20 or 30 yards away from the play.

The NFL needs to address this issue over the off season. I appreciate the rule itself, and understand why it needs to be implemented. However, it does need adjustments to how it is called.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cincy Jungle's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan, which is as important as the views of Cincy Jungle's writers or editors.