In week 2 of the 2018 season, Clay Matthews tackled Kirk Cousins, allowing Jaire Alexander to intercept the pass and seemingly win the game. But it got called back as “roughing the passer”. The game goes into OT and they tie with the Vikings. The very next week, Matthews draws a roughing the passer penalty…..on a sack against The Redskins’ Alex Smith. I thought Mike McCarthy was gonna kill one of those refs.
Anyway, what happened with all that? I remember there being a huge uproar from fans and players alike and then it seemed like those types of flags just stopped completely. Was something officially done?
Been watching Packer football since 1994 and I’ve never once heard of a rouging the passer being called on a friggin sack.
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I don’t believe they changed any rules but surely there were conversations with referees about what to be looking for. The “don’t put your bodyweight on the QB” point has largely been replaced by “don’t hit the QB high whatsoever”, which I think is a lame but slightly more fair alternative. You still see pseudo-body slams get called once in a while though.
Players largely have adjusted. The change wasn’t just that he “sacked him” but he drove his body weight into the QB while taking him down which was the penalty. Players largely have changed their approach on how they’ve tackled QBs in general. It does still sometimes get called, but not nearly as much when the change to the rule was implemented because it does take time for players to change their habits.
Happens with pretty much any kind of similar change. Players are taught a certain way to do things. Suddenly undoing that is difficult for most/all of them.
Iirc this is where the idea of not landing on the QB with all your weight came from as a rule. Now they are taught to catch themselves and roll off instead of driving the QB into the ground.
The worst one was when nick perry absolutely tattooed Andrew luck with a clean hit and they flagged it
It was a point of emphasis for the year from the body weight rule being added to Roughing the Passer when Rodgers got hurt, and since it was the Packers that made the refs pay attention to it, they were made the example. Players have become more averse to tackling a QB head on due to this, and have adjusted to a more side tackle/hit/drag down. You’ll hardly see a sack where the defender lands directly on the QB anymore.
Still happens. But they seem less strict about it in 2025.
The rule has expanded even more. QBs are even more protected than they used to be. Honestly offensive players as a whole are now, and defensive players are more at risk because of it. Like how defenders can’t lead with their helmet but runners can.
Clay basically murdered Kolb, leading to Vick’s career resurgence in Philly. He was a menace to qbs.
Clay retired so they no longer needed to call it
Man I forgot how bad and often Clay got fucked over by this rule
People treat quarterbacks like teddy bears these days imo
They’re too busy calling false starts on Centers for touching the football.
This happens every season. They over stress one rule for the first 4 weeks, and then we never see it called to the same extent again.
It still gets called whenever Pat Mahomes is taken to the ground
Slightly unrelated but I was at this game. Even the Washington fans around me were saying it was ridiculous.
Clay was reckless, even if the refs called things tight. At some point, you have to know the refs’ tendencies.
Clay Matthews retired, so they decided to retire the “Clay Matthews breathing near the passer rule” with him.
Rule is still in place. If you piledrive a QB into the ground, you’re still getting called. But they stopped calling it the same, largely because of backlash for penalties like the ones you referenced.
Mathews was sacrificed for this rule lol. After that bullshit back to back weeks of it we barely hear of it. I think maybe it came up last week but I don’t think they called an obvious example of it. I can’t remember which game it was though.
Swear they had it out for Clay
Long Live CMIII