The Carolina Panthers ran into a bit of a problem in their Week 15 loss to the New Orleans Saints, and one of their players may have a long-term solution for it.
Among the whopping 11 penalties drawn by the Panthers in Sunday’s 20-17 defeat were a couple of unfortunate unnecessary roughness calls. Both saw Saints quarterback Tyler Shough take “late” hits on his late slides, with defensive lineman Derrick Brown responsible for one in the third quarter and rookie safety Lathan Ransom responsible for the other in the fourth.
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Brown’s foul helped extend a 14-play, 48-yard possession that ended in three points for the Saints. Ransom’s would prove even costlier, as it gifted New Orleans an extra 15 yards to set up a go-ahead 47-yard field goal in the final seconds of the game.
Following the outing, Brown told reporters that the penalty on Ransom was a “BS call,” and that Shough was “sliding late” all day.
Shough himself would admit that he sold the hit to draw the flag and stop the clock.
Given how fast the game is played, defenders trying to stop a running quarterback are often faced with the near-impossible task of deciding to pull up or go for the tackle. That task is even more difficult when the quarterback takes his slide at the very last moment before impact.
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But Panthers long snapper JJ Jansen offered up a potential fix, for all parties involved. Here’s what the 18-year NFL veteran posted about the conundrum on Monday . . .
Luckily, Shough was not seriously hurt from either of the hits. A number of quarterbacks, however, have sustained head injuries off of their slides in recent seasons—with the latest example being Houston’s C.J. Stroud back in Week 9.
So if the NFL wants to make the game safer and prevent the weaponization of the rule, perhaps Jansen is onto something.
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This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: Panthers player proposes ban on QB baseball slide after loss to Saints