Was Terrell Suggs hit on Sam Bradford dirty? (Video)

Terrell Suggs was flagged for a late hit on Sam Bradford but the criticism he’s drawing is largely unwarranted.

It’s hard to make a preseason game a hot talking point on a weekend, especially when it doesn’t involve a stellar backup quarterback or a standout rookie making a spectacular play. But that’s what Terrell Suggs has managed to do, as he’s getting hit with regular season criticism in just the second preseason game for the Ravens.

All of the criticism being directed at Suggs on Sunday stems from a hit he put on Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford. On the play in question, Bradford was hit low by Suggs after handing the ball off on a read option play. But the hate isn’t for the late hit being flagged when it shouldn’t have been, it’s all about Suggs getting killed for trying to take out the knees of a quarterback with historically fragile joints.

Here’s a look at the hit:

That resulted in a 15-yard penalty and endless criticism the day after for Suggs. While the hate for the hit being low is well deserved — because it was a questionable hit — the debate over whether it was dirty or not is still not conclusive.

You can question the intentions of Suggs on the hit, but there wasn’t anything inherently dirty about the play. Even if Suggs was guilty of a wanting to go low on Bradford, there was nothing on the play that warranted a 15-yard penalty for a late hit. The read option is all about selling the defense at the last second on a running back run or a quarterback scramble.

A defensive player can’t be blamed for hitting the quarterback on a read option like this, and that’s something Suggs shouldn’t be getting heat for.

As far as the hit and how low it was, it’s still hard to tell if Suggs was intentionally targeting the knees of Bradford. It certainly looks that way if that’s what you’re looking for — and even a little if you’re not. But if Suggs was really going for Bradford’s knees, he’d have gone for them a little harder.

Suggs claims that he held back from hitting Bradford has hard as he wanted to, and whether that’s true or not is up for debate as well. But the hit isn’t as dirty as it’s being made out to be, and Suggs won’t be the only player to hit Bradford hard — or low — this season.

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