Ja’Marr Chase was heated over a tackle the NFL emphasized at the owners meetings this offseason, one that hasn’t been enforced during a game in the first two weeks of the year.
The NFL banned the hip-drop tackle this offseason, a tackle which the league defines as a tackler grabbing a runner with both hands and/or arms while attempting to make a tackle. The tackler than “unweights” himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower body, landing on and trapping the runner’s legs.
That type of tackle, when called by officials, will result in a 15-yard penalty and an automatic first down. Players have been fined for the tackle, but a penalty hasn’t been constituted on the field. Chase wanted to make that point known when he was arguing with the refs after Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie brought him down early in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss.
The officials did throw a flag — on Chase — for what transpired after the play. Official Alex Kemp said in the Chiefs-Bengals pool report that the flag was thrown on Chase for language toward the official. Chase also revealed to USA Today that he vented his frustrations over what be believed was a hip-drop tackle.
“It’s pretty clear-cut. It’s just simply abusive language toward a game official,” Kemp said. “That’s all it was. And there was really no interpretation. I’m not going to repeat to you what he said, but there was no interpretation with the language that he used — just abusive language.”
Judging a hip-drop tackle in real time is difficult, which led to Chase’s frustration. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and head coach Zac Taylor both deferred to Chase when asked about why Chase was frustrated, but the answer was abundantly clear.
The hip-drop tackle still hasn’t been called. Chase is hoping the officials are better at calling it in real time in the future.
