One of the most frustrating points of the Detroit Lions’ loss over the Minnesota Vikings came when Lions linebacker Jack Campbell went on a blitz and nearly sacked J.J. McCarthy. The Vikings quarterback completed a 4-yard pass to T.J. Hockenson, but Campbell was called for roughing the passer—turning a third-and-5 into an automatic first down.
While the FOX analysts debated the call—and ultimately decided it was the right call—the NFL seems to have admitted the flag was a mistake. First, watch the hit again:
Typically, if the call was correct, you’d see Campbell receive a fine on Saturday. A roughing the passer penalty comes with a $17,389 fine for first offenders and a $23,186 fine for repeat offenders.
Campbell did not receive a fine from the league, essentially confirming it was the wrong call.
Why was it the wrong call? The officials on field referenced the “body weight” stipulation of the roughing the passer rule. He believed Campbell drove his full weight into McCarthy, which would be a foul. Here’s the direct language from the NFL rulebook:
A rushing defender is prohibited from committing such intimidating and punishing acts as “stuffing” a passer into the ground or unnecessarily wrestling or driving him down after the passer has thrown the ball, even if the rusher makes his initial contact with the passer within the one-step limitation provided for in (a) above. When tackling a passer who is in a defenseless posture (e.g., during or just after throwing a pass), a defensive player must not unnecessarily or violently throw him down or land on
top of him with all or most of the defender’s weight.
But there is a critical sentence right after this section in the rulebook that is critical to this play. It reads:
Instead, the defensive player must strive to fall to the side of the quarterback’s body, or to brace his fall with his arms to avoid landing on the quarterback with all or most of his body weight.
If you go back and watch the replay, Campbell clearly takes his arm off McCarthy to brace his fall, rather than drive McCarthy into the turf. Not only is this not a foul, but it’s actually a textbook example of how officials want players to tackle a defenseless passer. Here’s a screenshot clearly showing Campbell bracing his own fall.
The play didn’t have that big of an impact on the game, however. Detroit would eventually pick off McCarthy a few plays later.
No Lions players were fined for the game against the Vikings. The only player fined was Minnesota running back Aaron Jones for initiating contact with his helmet on a first quarter reception.
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