Jay Cutler was slammed to the turf in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers, prompting many to question why no penalty was called.
The Chicago Bears quarterback tried to scramble on 3rd-and-10 but was wrapped up and tackled by Jaquiski Tartt, who threw him to the turf:
FOX officials guru Mike Pereira explains that because Cutler was moving forward, it was not a foul:
Here is why the #49ers were not penalized after slamming Jay Cutler to the turf
Via @KFC
https://t.co/FYIHXn6S7D
— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) December 6, 2015
The outrage arose for two reasons: one, Cutler appeared to hurt his head, and obviously there is a lot of sensitivity regarding concussions. Two, the original camera angle made it look a lot worse than it was. After seeing a second angle, the tackle by Tartt did seem clean.
