Riggo's Rag
FanSided

NFL’s ruling on Yannick Ngakoue’s dirty hit is infuriating

By Jerry Trotta

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - DECEMBER 05: Logan Thomas #82 of the Washington Football Team walks off the field with team trainers after suffering an injury during the fourth quarter of the game between the Washington Football Team and the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium on December 05, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - DECEMBER 05: Logan Thomas #82 of the Washington Football Team walks off the field with team trainers after suffering an injury during the fourth quarter of the game between the Washington Football Team and the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium on December 05, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

The Washington Football Team will be forced to play without Logan Thomas for the rest of the 2021 season.

The reason for that? A knee injury, which was initially feared to be a torn ACL. The silver lining is that Thomas avoided the worst, but it’s tough for fans to see the positive given how the injury happened, and rightly so.

The scenario has been regurgitated to no end since Washington’s road win in Las Vegas, but it bears repeating.

On the play, Yannick Ngakoue, who wasn’t close to making a play on the ball, lunged at Thomas’ knee to avoid a sift block. Washington fans obviously took exception to the hit, but a swarm of analysts have admitted it was avoidable.

That kind of says it all.

Unfortunately, the only justice Washington could get was the inevitable hefty fine the NFL would bestow upon Ngakoue.

The only problem? The Raiders’ edge rusher got off Scott-free.

Yannick Ngakoue wasn’t fined for his dirty hit that ended Logan Thomas’ season.

Are you surprised? Deep down, are you really surprised?

The NFL still hasn’t determined what’s a catch or not, so we really didn’t expect it to read between the lines of this play.

Only Ngakoue will know if he had malicious intent, but have you seen the replay? He spotted his 1-v-1 matchup with Thomas, paused, waited for the play to be well beyond his reach, then went low to avoid Thomas’ block.

It’d be one thing if Thomas was charging full speed at him. Nope. The 30-year-old veteran was waiting for Ngakoue to make the first move. Probably the smart call on Thomas’ part given Ngakoue’s array of pass-rushing moves.

It was the equivalent to the below-the-belt hit in boxing. At risk of doing serious damage to an opponent, players know not to execute this move. Not only did Ngakoue violate that unwritten sportsmanship rule, but he got away with it despite visual evidence that paints him at the scene of the crime.

But hey, at least Maxx Crosby was fined for his hit on Taylor Heinicke, right?

The NFL quite literally got it backwards. Even we can admit Crosby’s roughing the passer penalty was a little soft. You want to give him a flag in the heat of the moment, fine, but to put a $15,000-sized dent in his wallet for a fair hit on a quarterback and to let Ngakoue get away with a hit that ended a player’s season?

That’s deranged.

Like we said earlier: Are you really surprised?

Next. Logan Thomas update makes hit look even worse. dark

Home/Commanders News