Vikings fuming over low block

EDEN PRAIRIE, MINN. Watching a replay of the block that injured Minnesota Vikings teammate Kevin Williams only made Jared Allen angrier.

Learning the NFL wouldn’t fine San Francisco 49ers backup guard Joe Looney for cutting Williams at the knee — away from the play no less — had Allen downright apoplectic. “He ducked down to hit him in the knee,” he said in a heated session with news reporters Tuesday. “It was intent to hit him in the knee. And if the league can’t see that, they can fine me for this, because it’s absurd.”

Williams, a six- time Pro Bowl selection, avoided ligament damage on the low block by Looney in Sunday’s

“He could have hit him right in the chest, and he chose to duck down and hit him in his knee.” Vikings defensive end Jared Allen, on the block that injured teammate Kevin Williams

preseason game. Williams is considered questionable for the Sept. 8 regular- season opener after suffering a bone bruise and posterior capsular strain in his right knee.

The NFL banned peel- back blocks in the offseason, but it won’t discipline Looney because he wasn’t moving toward his own goal line and hit Williams from the front — even if it was 8 yards from the play.

“It is the type of play, however, that after the season the competition committee will look at with respect to player safety,” league spokesman Greg Aiello wrote in an e- mail to USA TODAY Sports.

The ruling hit home for Allen because he was fined $ 21,000 last season for a blindside block that injured Chicago Bears guard Lance Louis, even though Allen blocked him high.

Linebacker Chad Greenway, the Vikings’ representative to the players union, said defensive players “have so many sanctions against us, why can’t we be protected?” Allen called the block “dirty.” “How is ( Williams) not a defenseless player?” Allen said. “He has no idea that that guy’s there. He could have hit him right in the chest, and he chose to duck down and hit him in his knee.”