Ironman92;1878941 wrote:A QB giving himself up...that’s as bad as it gets. No gray area.
I think it is too gray an area of what constitutes a legal give up, and where the ball is spotted when it is legal. The quarterback shouldn't be allowed to be going full speed into a high risk Rea with a lot to gain with each foot of ground he gets, like a 1st down, and just drop down, and not expect to be hit. I think on that play, as late as Flacco went down he should not expect to be hit. I agree that the defender could have avoided the punishing hit on the QB. With a properly written rule and official's interpretation, I think that play should have been ruled as penalty on the QB for inappropriate " giving up" , and a penalty on the defense for unnecessary roughness and the net result of the play should not be a first down or an ejection. Furthermore, I think if the defender would have not have hit them the officials probably would have ruled it a first down. Maybe they should spot the ball on "give ups" maybe a yard back from where it would have been, just as a cost of bailing out on playing football the way it was meant to be.