Eddie Goldman Opens Up on Roughing the Passer Penalties
Eddie Goldman gives some honest answers on the new roughing the passer penalty guidelines.
The new guidelines for calling roughing the passer penalties have been a major talking point throughout the NFL season thus far. The Chicago Bears have been pretty fortunate and have mostly avoided costly penalties.
Last week against the Miami Dolphins, Leonard Floyd was dinged for a penalty after he breathed on Brock Osweiler. Sure, there’s an exaggeration there, but not by much. It appears that Floyd’s hand may have grazed Osweiler’s helmet. By rule, if any part of a defender touches the quarterback’s head, it’s a penalty.
The penalties are so harsh for such light contact that it’s affecting the way team’s are attacking the quarterback. The Bears’ have arguably the best pass rush in the NFL, are they concerned about roughing the passer penalties on a regular basis?
“You can’t think about that every play,” says Bears nose tackle Eddie Goldman. “But when you get to him, you just have to make a quick decision.”
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What is that quick decision? It’s how you are going to hit the quarterback and what you are going to do with your body as you do make contact.
“You hit the quarterback, you just have to make a conscious effort to fall to the side,” Goldman continued. “You gotta make it happen. In today’s game, teams lose games because of a penalty on a quarterback. It’s just a fact of the matter. It’s hard. But you have to do it because potentially it could keep drives going or lose us a game.”
Goldman was a guest of Steve Torre and Danny Kanell on the show, “Dog Day Sports” heard on Mad Dog Sports Radio on SiriusXM.
Goldman’s point about costing your own team a game is a fair one. We’ve seen games decided on roughing the passer penalties already (ask Clay Matthews what he thinks).
Goldman also went on to say that the team does specific drills and the defense has regular discussions on the best way to go after the quarterback.
The Bears as a team have focused more on attacking the ball rather than putting the quarterback to the turf. The Bears have 9 forced fumbles, 7 of which have come at the hands of stripping the QB.
That will be the squad’s focus coming up this Sunday against the New England Patriots. Tom Brady will be under center as he always is for New England, so you can be sure that the officials will make sure that the NFL’s top commodity is protected from any additional abuse levied by the Bears front seven.
Does Goldman think Brady will get any special treatment?
“We would like to think every quarterback is treated the same. Obviously Brady is probably the best in the league, but who knows, the ref might give him leeway.”