I don't see this as roughing the passer. He clearly goes for his signature swat, doesn't get it and his momentum brings him into Mett and falls on top of him. Whats the guy suppose to do?
He could have pushed him off so as to not drive him into the ground which is what caused the injury and incidentally is illegal. He didn't have to do that, but I think he wanted to send a message to the rookie
Watt drove him into the ground...That shouldve been flagged...but considering there were a lot of holds that went uncalled...who cares.
It wouldn't surprise me if the NFL levied a fine on JJ Watt for that hit on Mettenberger. That play was borderline dirty. Watt needs to be smarter and control his emotions better. He has already hurt the Texans on several occasions this season with his overaggression. He should just forget about all this "sending a message" to rookies and just do his job on the field and help the team win.
Watt hit was clean. Get rid of the ball faster and that wont happen. If you look at the gif...there's an argument to be made that Mettenberger made it look like he pulled the ball back in, even though the ball was already out of his hands. Football isn't played in slo-mo.
He did get rid of it...Watt knew he got rid of it because he tried to swat the pass. It really was an illegal hit, I see no reason not to acknowledge that.
Just because he goes for the swat doesn't mean his eyes are trained to the ball. Mettenberger could have pulled the ball back, pulled a Romo and then you're sitting here trashing Watt because he let another QB get away.
Look at the damn gif...there's no indication Watt even sees the ball. But we see Mettenberger pull his arm in as if to tuck the ball away. Football players don't have the luxury of playing in bullet time. So stop making the assumption that a 290lb man can just stop his momentum on a dime.
I'm not "trashing Watt", but it was a clearly illegal hit. I don't think he meant to hurt the kid, but he did mean to rough him up a bit by driving him into the ground like that. Watt is arguably the best player in the NFL, but even he makes mistakes from time to time. The WR taunted him in the end zone with a "selfie" celebration at the end of the last possession and Watt wanted to crush the QB to get back at them for it. You poke the bear, you become dinner.
Actually, now that you mention it, it does sort of look like JJ is trying to strip a non-existent ball with his left hand as they are going down. Maybe he did think the Mett still had the ball in his hands.
I agree that he does need to control himself sometimes, but he does his job pretty damn well. Do you not realize how awful we would be if he wasn't on this team? He has already won games for this team. At least with Watt, he is overaggressive and going 110 when Clowney is going about 5 in a school zone.
