Should Henry Have Been Called For Targeting?

Does his helmet even make contact with Hackenberg in any way?  I don't think you can tell from that angle.  

He dipped his head, probably out of reflex and because he's a mean SOB on the field, but I think he missed.  I agree it could be a point of coaching to hold up on that. 

When people are coming at your knees, you are taught to dive into the pile.  If you try to avoid it, you are likely to end up with an injury if a guy rolls up on you.  Should have avoided the head but he was too close to try to move out of the way.

It's pretty bad.  Of course, officials only ever make bad calls/no-calls against Michigan, so the answer is: correct no-call.

No.  Not even close to targeting.

- For this particular play, I get a bit worried about people saying a defender has "plenty of time" to do something; things happen fast out there. Taco hits Hackenberg backwards at essentially the same time as Henry drives forward to make the tackle. If Hackenberg stays upright (which he was until the very last split second), Henry hits Hackenberg in the mid-section/upper thigh.

- However, on Penn State's last drive, Henry should have been called for a personal foul / late hit when he took a couple steps and then lifted Hackenberg up and drove him into the ground. Again, I have sympathy for the defender who is trying to make a play, but the QB definitely didn't have the ball, Henry came clear (e.g., wasn't being blocked) and he should have laid off.

Regardless, Henry needs to be more careful. His personal foul against MSU was legit (in my opinion) ; he could have had another one against Indiana (when he jumped, late, on the QB after a fumble) ; and he definitely could have had one against Penn State.

He's a big dude -- if he gets on someone late, they are going to notice.

wow

If it's not targeting when a QB slides, because he's bringing his head down into the target zone, then it's not targeting when another player's tackle brings the QB's head into the target zone.  

Henry was in the process of lunging for the tackle when Taco gets him.  He could have pulled up, but rather tried to adjust to the new positioning for a gang tackle.  I think I'd be fine calling this targeting if it was the way it has been called all year, but that's not the case.  

No. Just no.

No

But at the same time, the defense is really limited by the rules these days. This and the late hit out of bounds stuff (which Michigan has benefited a lot from because Rudock is great at toeing the line and stepping out at the last second) leave me peaved quite often.

As a defender in these situations, what are you supposed to do sometimes? You have to tackle a guy or make sure he's actually down or OOB. Alright. But he's also falling down or lowering himself. Or he's threatening to pick up more yards by maintaining his balance. Or he loses the football because he's trying to brace himself but you can't make a play on it because he might be actually going down. Or his forward progress might be stopped. But hey, there's a split second to do something or the exact opposite thing.

Targeting should be when a guy launches himself into the head area of an opponent. A late hit OOB should be when a guy has at least both feet come down OOB. Head to head contact when a player is going to the ground, while dangerous, I understand, shouldn't be a targeting call. A player already down and there is head to head contact, alright, that's launching into a defenseless player. All else is potentially kicking a guy out of a game for doing his job.

Until targetting calls for hits on Michigan players actually becomes a thing, no Michigan hit will get me to admit it should be called as such.

I thought this too. Yes, very easily could have been called. I'm actually shocked that it wasn't since every official seems to hate Harbaugh. 

Hard to call anything short of a sledgehammer to the face targeting these days, but I wouldn't have been surprised if they had.  Henry is a great player but sometimes lacks self control.  It's already come to bite him with the belly flop.  

he was within the five yard zone of the quarterback so a targeting call was justified. If Rudock is the quarterback, his head remained attached so definitely not. I don't see it here. Wormley beat the block and went for the quarterback who was going down. He really went over him. He looked down as if he was trying to avoid Hackenberg. The way it's been called all year, who knows though?

should be ignored - nobody has a consistent or even elementary understanding of what targeting actually is, so these questions cannot be answered.  It's WAY too much of a judgement call at this point and far too many inconsistencies have happened because of that, even (somehow) in the review booth.  It's pathetic.

I'm sure this was covered in one of the game day threads, but I didn't read them all.  

Defensive offsides, has that rule changed?  You can't get back across the line before the snap?  I thought that it had changed so that an offensive player is allowed to move in defense of being hit by a player going offside.  But some of the calls I saw Saturday were in cases when the offensive player was clearly in no danger, and the defensive player got back before the snap.  

I'm surprised he didn't get called and suspended by the NCAA for the rest of the season with how targeting calls have gone for us lately.

What are we, like 0-4 for opposing teams avoiding the calls?

It's not targeting, he definitely leads with the shoulder, and I don't think his helmet actually makes contact with Hackenberg.

As for the late  hit, it's definitely not late by any means.  Hack is still going down when he starts to hit him, he has the ball, the plays not dead.  How would it be late? As for why Henry didn't hold up, it looks to me like he's trying to cause a fumble there with a big hit.  He even jumps up and looks for the ball after the play.  I think he saw an opportunity (much like when a ball-carrier is being held up and another defender comes in to rip the ball out) to cause a turnover and took it.

Clearly he should have.  The fact that he wasn't is proof that B1G refs have been in Harbaugh's pocket all season. 

 

/s

Hack is falling down and his helmet falls to Henry's level coincidentally. There's no way Henry can see where Hack's head is when he goes to tackle. Yeah, it's probably mildly poor tackling form to lower the head but it's not uncommon. When your OL sucks, bad shit happens to your QB when multiple people hit him at the same time. Ask Devin Gardner.

 

First, the targeting rule is extremely unclear, atleast to the officials it is. What's targeting one play isn't targeting the next. You can hit people how ever you want below the neck and above the knees, so Henry's assisted sack was not targeting.

there have been a few plays this year by Willie Henry showing lack of judgment. Don't want to see a replay of the 3rd down penalty against Crable, 2006.

I don't think you deserve an avalanche of negs for this question. I thought the exact same thing when I saw this play.

A reverse angle would be helpful here; I can't tell if helmet-to-helmet contact was actually made. I am not an X's and O's guy so I usually defer to those on the blog that are, they seem to think no-call was correct here... 

Did he clock Hackenburg helmet to helmet? Was it intentional? 

 

I think we absolutely need to find a way to protect these players better. Maybe its better helmets (whatever happened to the Helmet caps from the 90's?). Its also likely rules. 

But I hate the way targeting is currently being officiated. To me its the deliberate, or seemingly deliberate, helmet to helmet hit by one player on another. Spearing to the head. Dangerous for everyone. The UM hit on Shane Morris comes to mind. Actually in that series it looked like there were two hits to Shane, both of which could have hurt his brain and the neck of the guy delivering the blow. I'm not sure if 'targeting' was in the rule book then, but to me that's the textbook example. 

But the way its being called now?!? Normally I hate it when people complain about officiating, but this year has me complaining too. It seems like Rudock gets clocked and nothing happens, or worse a targeting call is overturned. Then Bolden gets thrown into Cook and ejected. 

I don't care how this effects the game. I care that its so inconsistent as to not dissuade the dangerous hits. Its ridiculous. They need to get their $hit together. I'm furious at this.