Patrick Finley at the Chicago Sun-Times quotes quarterback Jay Cutler on defensive end Shea McClellin’s unnecessary-roughness penalty in the second quarter Sunday:
“Cutler was asked whether a flag would have been thrown if he had been the victim of the same hit.
“’Wouldn’t have been close to a flag,’ he said.”
I’m not surprised to hear this complaint from many fans. But I am surprised that Cutler, who with his mobility outside the pocket benefits from such calls more than most quarterbacks, doesn’t get it. I note that Troy Aikman doesn’t quite understand the situation, yet, either based upon his on air comments.
Any hit on a quarterback which is deemed to be not necessary is a personal foul. Period. It doesn’t matter if you use your helmet. It doesn’t matter how clean it is. It doesn’t matter if its soft as a baby’s bottom. If you didn’t need to do it and you did it anyway, its a penalty. Rogers was down. McClellin could have avoided the hit and didn’t. That’s all there is to it.
Cutler gets the same calls as everyone else.