Joe Flacco suffered a concussion and needed to have his ear stitched up after he was hit in the head by Kiko Alonso Thursday night, but the Miami Dolphins linebacker insists he was not trying to commit a dirty play.
According to Alonso, Flacco was partially responsible for the hit because he went into his slide too late.
.@MiamiDolphins LB Kiko Alonso defends his hit on Joe Flacco tonight in #MIAvsBAL. pic.twitter.com/Lk2ArnkTAa
— NFL Total Access (@NFLTotalAccess) October 27, 2017
“It was bang-bang. It got to a point where I thought maybe if he slid a second sooner — I was anticipating him to slide and I was gonna not hit him. It was a second late, which is why I hit him.”
Here’s a video of the play:
Kiko Alonso : 5 tackles including this hit on Joe Flacco that put him in concussion protocol pic.twitter.com/7kzhnT6Eqw
— Lee Harvey (@MusikFan4Life) October 27, 2017
Alonso said there was “no way” he could have avoided the type of contact he made, noting that a player’s “target is very small” when he slides. The counter-argument for that would be that there is no target on a sliding player because you’re not supposed to hit him.
Flacco looked like he was in pretty rough shape after the play, and he had to leave the game. Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh got in Alonso’s face following the hit, with the two having to be separated. Alonso wasn’t ejected, but he will almost certainly be facing a fine and possibly a suspension from the NFL.
