Clay Matthews didn’t mince words after another roughing the passer penalty

For the third straight week, Clay Matthews was flagged for roughing the passer and it appears he’s had enough.

It seemed like a tall order to top the controversy surrounding the NFL’s catch rule. Never before has there been a more appropriate hold my beer situation than the absurdity of the catch rule being surpassed by that of the new roughing the passer guidelines.

Just like how Calvin Johnson became the face of the catch rule controversy, Clay Matthews is the poster child for the new tackling rule everyone has collectively decided is ridiculous. Late in the second half of Green Bay’s loss to Washington on Sunday, Matthews was flagged for sacking Alex Smith too hard. That’s not a smart ass assessment of the hit — it’s actually what happened. Despite what seemed to be a textbook tackle where Matthews wrapped up Smith, didn’t lead with his head or even his shoulder, he was flagged for landing on top of Smith rather than pulling his weight off before they hit the ground.

This is the third straight week Matthews has been flagged for hitting a quarterback incorrectly.

Here are all three of Matthews roughing the passer penalties. The only defensible one, from a rule book standpoint, is the first one but even that’s stretching it.

After Sunday’s loss to Washington, Matthews didn’t mince words when asked about being flagged for the second straight week for a hit that absolutely looked legal.

Matthews said that while he understands the spirit of the rule, he points out that tackling someone often times involves landing on them. He’s not wrong, but it’s the fact that he needs to point out something so obvious that highlights how ridiculous this whole issue is.

Unlike the other two penalties, the one on Sunday in Washington didn’t really have an effect on the outcome of the game. The hit on Mitchell Trubisky extended the Bears drive (which should have ended in a score if not for incompetence) and the hit on Kirk Cousins helped extend the game into overtime where it would end in a tie (because of incompetence). It could be argued that extending the Washington drive that late in the game perhaps stunted the chance for Green Bay to recapture momentum. We’ll never know if Aaron Rodgers had another second-half comeback in him because we were robbed of the opportunity thanks to the tackling rule.

It’s redundant at this point to say the rule is dumb and needs a new interpretation. But the problem is the NFL doesn’t think there’s anything wrong. The idea of the tackling rule affecting the outcome of games was a when not if situation, but the fact that it’s happening this early in the year doesn’t bode well for where things are going.