Last week, Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews was called for a roughing the passer penalty for lifting Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins and driving him to the ground. This week, he was called for another controversial penalty after sacking Washington Redskins quarterback Alex Smith.
According to an article from ProFootballTalk, the violation was because Matthews landed with ‘most or all of the defender's weight' on the quarterback. The NFL Football Operations' Twitter account also posted the official ruling:
This is a foul for roughing the passer – the defender lands “with all or most of the defender’s weight” on the passer. Rule 12, Section 2, Article 9(b)
#GBvsWAS
Referee Craig Wrolstad, who called the violation, also provided his thoughts. As Jeremy Bergman of NFL.com writes:
“I had judged that the defender landed on the quarterback when he was tackling him with most or all of his body weight and that's not allowed. If you do that, it's roughing the passer,” Wrolstad told the pool reporter after the game. “So that was basically my key, that he landed on him with most or all of his body weight and that was my ruling, roughing the passer.”
Matthews obviously did not agree with the call and was visibly upset. After the game, he said the NFL was getting “soft.”
Another thing that Matthews and the Packers can be upset about is that the foul on Matthews came after Washington defensive lineman Daron Payne appeared to drive Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers into the groin, but no flag was thrown.
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