Former Ravens CB keeps making headlines for 20-year-banned tackle vs. Packers
Last Monday the Green Bay Packers and the Las Vegas Raiders played a football game on MNF. It could have happened in the early aughts and you wouldn't have noticed.
That is because of what happened in the third quarter of that matchup. The game was tied at 10 points each and the Packers quarterback, Jordan Love, connected with Christian Watson on a deep field pass that was nothing but guaranteed to end in a touchdown. Or so we thought.
Marcus Peters, the former Ravens cornerback, was the only man close to Watson that could tackle him. Of course, he was in a disadvantageous position. What did Peters do? Going for a blatant horse-collar tackle that the NFL banned all the way back in 2005.
The play raised all of the controversy you can imagine and then some. The reason, obviously, being the fact that Green Bay failed to score a touchdown on that drive, settled on a scored field goal, took a 13-10 led, but ultimately lost the game 17-13 following a touchdown by the Raiders later in the matchup.
Although the violation of the rules was clear, the Raiders were handed a silly three-yard penalty due to the spot of the foul.
Some argued that this unconventional move may have been a game-changer, potentially securing victory for the Raiders without heading into overtime. Those people are right, full stop.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk heavily criticized the ruling on the field while praising Peters for simply taking advantage of the void in the rulebook. He suggested that Peters' tackle could be classified as a "palpably unfair act," giving referees the authority to award a touchdown even if the offensive player goes down before crossing the goal line.
It's going to be mad hard to see the league tweak the rules written in the book mostly because Florio's suggestion is quite subjective and it could potentially lead to even bigger problems and suspicions depending on how this or that referee applies it on the field.
In any case, it's clear that Peters put Watson in danger of suffering an injury (thus the ban of horse-collar tackles) while saving his team from losing a game (although that's not quite clear consider the moment of the game when that play happend and the score then).