Brett Keisel: Making Buddy Ryan Proud

There's no way this isn't preventable

This is not the Redskins-Steelers preseason gamewrap. That's here.
=====

New coach, old tactics. Shades of Kimo von Oelhoffen rolling into Carson Palmer's legs, oops acciDENTally for real I was blocked into him. Going for a quarterback's knees has been a part of the game since its inception and as the rules have tightened around protecting the QB some say just put him in a dress but others say it's all in the name of safety. Brett Keisel is proudly carrying on the tradition of Steelers illegally hitting quarterbacks low.

On 8 January 2006 Carson and the Bengals were playing a home playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. On the first pass of the game Bengals left guard Eric Steinbach tangled with Steelers right defensive tackle Kimo. Kimo was 'blocked into' Carson, rolling Carson's right leg, destroying it with tears of the ACL, MCL, PCL, meniscus and knee cartilage. The favored Bengals lost the game, the cinderella Steelers went on to win the Super Bowl and Carson faced and ultimately came back from months of rehabilitation.

Reasonable people can disagree about whether Kimo's hit on Carson was 'intentional' or 'legal' or 'part of the game.' Look at this two-image sequence of the hit. Looks to me like Kimo stumbles through Eric's block and Eric is pushing Kimo away from Carson and Kimo is still directing his body toward Carson even as he falls toward the ground and therefore below Carson's belt.

and then

In the second picture Kimo has compensated his point of attack from his outside shoulder (downfield) to his inside shoulder (upfield). Even as he falls to the ground he is still rolling his body toward Carson's knee. The hit is devastating and it nearly ended Carson's career.

As a result of that hit NFL rules were amended with the so-called 'Kimo Rule' that dictates defenders take 'every opportunity' to avoid hitting the QB at or below the knees when the QB is in a defenseless position looking to throw with both feet on the ground.*

I was watching that game and I did not believe Kimo worked to avoid hitting the QB low. I also do not believe Brett Keisel worked at all to avoid hitting Jason Campbell low. I don't think either of them is a dirty player but neither made his career-signature play with the awareness required considering each went into his quarterback's legs head first, not with his back turned, not with his face down not all whoa I just hit the QB.

Watching that play again and again from Saturday's preseason game it would appear to me that Brett is so surprised he gets past rookie left tackle Stephon Heyer with no block that his unchecked momentum drops him to the ground where he bounces and pushes off parallel to the ground right at Jason. Stephon should not have blown that play, getting fooled by a linebacker feint at the line. That said it was Brett that hit Jason with the shoulder below the belt and the arm below the knee (see image above).

Say what you will about split seconds, banging bodies and in the moment but if you see yourself falling you have to roll out of the way. Even these big guys have that kind of body control. It is not enough to say your prerogative is tackling the QB and what happens when bodies bang is pure chance. If that means that you have to avoid hitting him when you stumble or get blocked in that direction and wait to get back up before you can tackle him, then that's the rule.

If we can do away with headslapping, facemask tackling, tripping, clipping, set-up knock down QB tackles (when already in the grasp), spearing, helmet to helmet, horse collar tackling and dead ball bitchsmacking of the QB after a turnover when he is not in the play** then we can take away a tackler's excuse that he went low to the QB because well, it just happened.



* The text of the Kimo Rule was lifted directly from Carson Palmer's Wikipedia entry. This section refers to an nfl.com story linked here that appears no longer to be active under the NFL website's new layout. Losing old links would be one downside of a website renovation and the NFL should work to restore them. Kimo van Oelhoffen's Wikipedia entry also makes mention of the hit and the resulting rules change.

** Great summary of the evolution of NFL rules is here, ironically a Steelers fansite.

Jason Campbell and Brett Keisel: Preston Keres / Washington Post from here. Carson Palmer and Kimo van Oelhoffen first image from here, second Andy Lyons / Getty Images from here.