Clay Mathews fined for hitting a 9er

[pmedic920]

I loved seeing it. Glad Kap wasn't hurt. Fine was justified. IMO

 

[Marvin49]

I loved seeing it. Glad Kap wasn't hurt. Fine was justified. IMO

Ya.

I don't think Clay is a dirty player tho.

I think he had been frustrated by not ever getting a clean hit for a game and a half and lost his mind there for a second.

 

[Popeyejones]

^^^ Yeah, I'd call it a pretty remarkably dirty play* from a player that isn't typically dirty.

*in this evaluation I'm also including the punches he threw on the sideline and didn't get ejected for as part of the "play," although even the tackle itself was pretty nuts all by itself.

 

[NinerBuff]

That whole exchange was weird...

- Obvious personal foul by Matthews
- Bad call personal foul on Staley for retaliating
- Refs mistakenly replayed the down as opposed to making it 4th down

That play had major bearing on the rest of the game, and there were several poor ref mistakes...

 

[Popeyejones]

That whole exchange was weird...

- Obvious personal foul by Matthews
- Bad call personal foul on Staley for retaliating
- Refs mistakenly replayed the down as opposed to making it 4th down

That play had major bearing on the rest of the game, and there were several poor ref mistakes...

Yeah. Overall the NFL is pretty luck that by the end it ended up getting as close as it possibly could have to the correct outcome.

Basically Matthews should have been ejected and the 9ers should have had first and three or whatever after the play. They end up scoring a TD anyway so the bad call on Staley gets erased due to the snafu about replaying the down, and the 9ers end up winning anyway which neutralizes the "what ifs" about Matthews non-ejection for throwing punches after the illegal hit.

Of course both fanbases were complaining about all the "one-sided" non-offensive holding calls during the game, but as everyone was complaining about it (if only for their partisan side), I have to figure that ended up evening out.

 

[Sports Hernia]

Mathews should have gotten a bonus for that hit!

 

[mistaowen]

[youtube]0pr8hIzNefk[/youtube]

He is running full speed laterally and tackled him as soon as he stepped out of bounds. It was a big hit but every defender goes for a big hit when the QB is in an area for one. Stop making mountains out of molehills.

What if Kaep juked up towards the endzone? He is clearly a good athlete so the thought of him planting one direction and cutting the other is very possible. The way the NFL is now most defenders slow up and he has a good shot at making a big play.

Also fantastic how he looked for the flag instantly.

 

[60niners]

[youtube]0pr8hIzNefk[/youtube]

He is running full speed laterally and tackled him as soon as he stepped out of bounds. It was a big hit but every defender goes for a big hit when the QB is in an area for one. Stop making mountains out of molehills.

What if Kaep juked up towards the endzone? He is clearly a good athlete so the thought of him planting one direction and cutting the other is very possible. The way the NFL is now most defenders slow up and he has a good shot at making a big play.

Also fantastic how he looked for the flag instantly.

I'll tell you what: I'd bet my dinner that if Patrick Willis was in pursuit at full speed and launched himself, AFTER Russell Wilson had already taken a full stride out of bounds, and made contact with him a full yard out of bounds, and then wrapped his hand around his shoulder/neck area and drove him into the ground a full 3 yards out of bounds; you will feel differently.

When a person jumps forward, their lead (frontmost) foot is the foot they're actially propelling themselves from. Kap already has a foot on the ground, out of bounds, and Matthews still has his jumping foot on the ground. To suggest that he could have in no possible way elected to not jump is absolutely moronic (maybe not your argument but I've heard it mentioned in defense of the play). I challenge you to run forward, even at 50% speed, and do your best to jump off of your back foot. It's impossible. So up until the very last second before his lead foot finally left the ground he could have pulled up... And even then, he could have just hit Kap, and not wrapped up his arms and drove him to the ground.

 

[SharkHawk]

His leap didn't START when he was a full step out of bounds. Watch the replay again. This time take off your niner goggles.

I hate Clay. I think he's an overrated doofus. But to say that he launched after the guy was out of bounds is just a flat out lie. The slo-mo clearly showed him launch as Kap moves laterally, but he could have just as well cut up for a TD, or reached out to break the plane. A launch play like that is EXACTLY what Patrick Willis DID do to Matt Hasselbeck and broke his ribs and injured his spine quite badly. Why did he do it? Because Matt was attempting to reach into the endzone, but it wasn't on the sideline, it was near the hash. None of us said it was dirty. We said it was a brutal hit. It was. It wasn't necessary as Matt had his progress essentially stopped, but Willis speared right into his flank and really took away about a season and a half and set Matt onto the path that led him to being a backup and ushered in the Charlie Whitehurst era.

So I think you're a bit misguided here. My opinion. You get what you pay for.

 

[60niners]

His leap didn't START when he was a full step out of bounds. Watch the replay again. This time take off your niner goggles.

I hate Clay. I think he's an overrated doofus. But to say that he launched after the guy was out of bounds is just a flat out lie. The slo-mo clearly showed him launch as Kap moves laterally, but he could have just as well cut up for a TD, or reached out to break the plane. A launch play like that is EXACTLY what Patrick Willis DID do to Matt Hasselbeck and broke his ribs and injured his spine quite badly. Why did he do it? Because Matt was attempting to reach into the endzone, but it wasn't on the sideline, it was near the hash. None of us said it was dirty. We said it was a brutal hit. It was. It wasn't necessary as Matt had his progress essentially stopped, but Willis speared right into his flank and really took away about a season and a half and set Matt onto the path that led him to being a backup and ushered in the Charlie Whitehurst era.

So I think you're a bit misguided here. My opinion. You get what you pay for.

I mean, I guess if you want to get technical and call it 8/10's of a step, be my guest...

This is nothing but a pause and cell phone picture. If his foot is still on the ground, I cannot in good concious call it a launch. Launching is when a player goes airborn; he's not airborn if he's still on the ground. Look at the still I posted and tell me how there was any question that Kaepernick might have cut it up field. There was more than enough time for Matthews to see that Kaep was indeed going out of bounds, and to pull up and not jump, or at the very least, to finish the hit with a push, versus wrapping up and driving him to the ground.

The play with Matt Hasselbeck and Willis isn't even really comparable...? Hasselbeck stuck his nose in the fray looking to get into the end zone - if I remember that play correctly, he basically lowered his head. Willis lead with his shoulder, and hit him on time, and in the field of play.

 

[SharkHawk]

You are one step too early on your freeze frame. Nice try though. The fact that one leg is already up and the second foot is about to go airborne means that he began the "launch" while Kap was still in bounds. A for effort on the frame marking though. SMH.

 

[60niners]

You are one step too early on your freeze frame. Nice try though. The fact that one leg is already up and the second foot is about to go airborne means that he began the "launch" while Kap was still in bounds. A for effort on the frame marking though. SMH.

LIke I said two posts ago: try running at any speed and jumping off of your trailing foot. Go ahead.

The fact is, that his jump was accomplished with one solitary foot, and that one foot is still on the ground. The fact that you chose to see it otherwise doesn't make it any less true. So he had still yet to jump, and Kaepernick is very clearly already out of bounds...

And I noticed you very clearly ignored the completely valid point of Matthews not needing to wrap up on such a play.

This picture was a pause of a crappy nfl.com internet replay in a firefox browser. It wasn't even remotely difficult to pause it at the time when Kap had went out of bounds.

 

[SharkHawk]

NFL broadcast super slo-mo showed precisely when it happened. I think Matthews is a dick. It didn't look dirty. It didn't look smart, but it didn't look dirty. Staley did attempt to throw a punch by the way, and Matthews grabbed his left arm and wrist locked him. Then Boldin did throw at least one punch in the game. Why don't we see that part of the video? Boldin clearly hit people during the game, and was allowed to run wild, but it should have been a 1 for 1. Matthews goes, Boldin goes. I think Boldin has a much bigger impact on the game than Matthews who basically picks up garbage time sacks, and very few tackles in the run game.

I am interested that you bring up the Willis example, and then I respond with the fact that it did happen, and we didn't spend a week griping about it on a 49ers board (which is really a bit strange that you're griping about a Packer on a Seahawks board... ummm... we hate the Packers, remember? They blitzed practically every down on us in the preseason and McCarthy is a grade A Douchebag). I guess we should have posted all about Willis' hit on Hasselbeck on a Chargers board. Seems about par for the course in comparison.

 

[5_Golden_Rings]

His leap didn't START when he was a full step out of bounds. Watch the replay again. This time take off your niner goggles.

I hate Clay. I think he's an overrated doofus. But to say that he launched after the guy was out of bounds is just a flat out lie. The slo-mo clearly showed him launch as Kap moves laterally, but he could have just as well cut up for a TD, or reached out to break the plane. A launch play like that is EXACTLY what Patrick Willis DID do to Matt Hasselbeck and broke his ribs and injured his spine quite badly. Why did he do it? Because Matt was attempting to reach into the endzone, but it wasn't on the sideline, it was near the hash. None of us said it was dirty. We said it was a brutal hit. It was. It wasn't necessary as Matt had his progress essentially stopped, but Willis speared right into his flank and really took away about a season and a half and set Matt onto the path that led him to being a backup and ushered in the Charlie Whitehurst era.

So I think you're a bit misguided here. My opinion. You get what you pay for.

You SURE he didn't START when he was a full step out of bounds? Because Matthews hasn't even left the ground yet and Kap is WELL out of bounds. And not only that, Kaepernick is SLOWING DOWN, as you can see by his BODY LEAN compared to where his leg is pointing (and by watching the vid, which also shows that the power of Matthew's impetus on the hit came from his SECOND foot to leave the ground and the way he jerked his body in the air, not the first foot leaving the ground).

You are one step too early on your freeze frame. Nice try though. The fact that one leg is already up and the second foot is about to go airborne means that he began the "launch" while Kap was still in bounds. A for effort on the frame marking though. SMH.

This time Kap's BODY is out of bounds but he's still in the air, and Matthew's hasn't even taken his BACK foot off the ground more than an inch, and his momentum is still clearly on top of his own frame, as judged by his body lean (and the impetus from his hit came from the SECOND foot that left the ground in the first place). This PROVES BEYOND ANY DOUBT that he HASN'T launched yet. But at this point, it would be PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE for Kap to turn up field. Your thoughts?

This time take off your Seahawk goggles.

 

[kearly]

Not to take sides, but I thought it was clearly a late hit by Matthews. Not so much because of the launch aspect, but how he finished it. He slammed Kaepernick into the ground about 7 feet out of bounds. That part could have been avoided. Easy call.

Matthews instigated the fight that ensued and threw the first punch. Staley should be pissed that he got flagged instead of Matthews. Matthews should have been ejected, and SF should have had 1st and goal at the 2. The TD that followed on Leavy's botched ruling was poetic justice. And I was rooting hard against both the 49ers and Kaepernick that day (my fantasy opponent was starting Kaepernick, still whipped him anyway).

 

[pmedic920]

Kearly I think you have it right. In the current climate the NFL is going to protect the QB. I don't feel that Matthews is dirty per se but this was a hit that the league had to address. Matthews plays with a lot of emotion. It's next to impossible to turn off those emotions in a millisecond. Kaepernick has a history of running well and Mathews made sure he didn't gain any more yards. IMHO if this had been a hit on a WR or RB, would prob have not drawn the fine. Flag yes, fine no. The fine was for the late hit, not the fight that ensued.

 

[Axx]

So kap is getting the same protection as brady now???

 

[HawkWow]

"I'm not a dirty player, I'm an awesome player".

I love the game Matthews plays on the field, but is there a player out there with a fatter head?

 

[pmedic920]

 

[60niners]

Lol.