Roughing penalties miff Jaguars’ Jackson
JACKSONVILLE — Jaguars defensive tackle Malik Jackson is among an increasing number of NFL players who have become frustrated after three weeks into the season over the league’s rampant amount of roughing-the-passer penalties.
Jackson was penalized 15 yards Sunday for lowering his head to initiate contact on a hit on Tennessee quarterback Blaine Gabbert that knocked him out of the game with a concussion in the first quarter.
Jackson’s sack was negated, along with Dante Fowler’s fumble recovery on the play.
“The NFL wants us to be acrobats,” Jackson said. “I hope once I kind of talk to them about it, they see what I see. If they can’t tell me what to do better or different, then I think I shouldn’t be fined.”
Jackson acknowledged that his head was down, but contact was unavoidable because the quarterback was getting ready to run and Gabbert turned toward him trying to avoid contact from Calais Campbell.
Asked if he could have done anything differently on the play Jackson said: “I really don’t think so, to be honest with you -- except maybe not chase him and then I would have had the coaches on me. Nobody’s dirty on this team. Nobody’s going out to try to hurt people or get people out of the game. This is a way we provide for our families.”
Defensive players can’t hit quarterbacks in the head or land on them with their body weight during a sack.
Coach Doug Marrone said they’re on their players all the time in practice about using proper technique to tackle.
Still, the Jaguars’ 265 yards in penalties after three games is the third-highest in the NFL.
In their two previous games, they have committed 15 penalties for 146 yards.
However, Marrone said the NFL came back and admitted that linebacker Telvin Smith should not been penalized 15 yards for his Week 2 hit on the Patriots’ Chris Hogan because he led with his shoulder pads and not with his helmet.
“We just have to keep talking about, ‘Hey, get your head to the side,’ and doing that,” Marrone said. “Malik’s was a tough one, I think, because the quarterback’s movement and spinning. That’s a little bit tougher. We’re talking all the time, showing our players all the tapes that we get about weight on the quarterback and the helmet-to-helmet. We’re just trying to do the best job that we can.
“I’m probably like everyone else. Some penalties I could say you understand, tough situation. You try to coach them to be in a better situation. I don’t like the presnap ones, ones you do have control over.”
According to the NFL, there have been 34 roughing-the-passer penalties called through the first three weeks of the 2018 season compared to 16 through the first three games last season.
With the high rate of calls, Green Bay linebacker Clay Matthews blasted the NFL, saying it’s getting soft after he received his third roughing-the-passer penalty in as many weeks. He was flagged 15 yards for landing on Washington Redskins quarterback Alex Smith during a sack in the third quarter.
“Unfortunately this league’s going in a direction I think a lot of people don’t like. I think they’re getting soft,” Matthews told reporters following Green Bay’s 31-17 loss to Washington on Sunday.
NFL.com reported Tuesday that several members of the competition committee are uncomfortable with the calls.
In Monday night’s game between Pittsburgh-Tampa Bay, four roughing-thepasser penalties were called. It was enough for ESPN’s Monday Night Football analyst and former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten to lash out at the league.
“They’re gone too far with that rule,“Witten said. “Not only are the players frustrated, but the coaches. They don’t know how to coach this.”