Using the Marshawn Lynch technique against opposing QB's in the playoffs

[FireChans]

"Hitting the opposing QB a lot to rattle him" is about as novel of a strategy as "score more points than the other team"

[NoSaint]

4 hours ago, Einstein said:

I was thinking about what Marshawn Lynch said on 60 Minute sports a while back. He said: "That's when it just clicked in my mind, that if you just run through somebody's face, a lot of people ain't going to be able to take that over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again."

I loved the quote. And it got to thinking - why don't teams use this approach in the playoffs, with the opposing QB?

Scenario: Say we are playing Mahomes or Burrow in the playoffs, and our players are told that every time you're anywhere near him, you pummel him. Whether he threw the ball out of bounds, or to a receiver, or even just handed it off. Tackle him. Just consistently bring the guy down. Play after play after play after play - Like Marshawn said about running. To be clear i'm not advocating to intentionally injure. This is more of a psychological game.

 

Sure, you will get some roughing-the-passer flags, but I hypothesize that the in-game damage to that players psyche may be worth it. A few other factors:

1) In the playoffs, refs tend to swallow their whistle. But even when they call a big penalty, they are reluctant to do it twice. Or three times. Or four times. Or five times. A team could play off this fact and repeatedly pummel the opposing QB, forcing the ref to repeatedly throw the flag.

 

2) Even if the refs do throw the flag 4 or 5 times, I think i'm willing to give an opponent a couple easy trips down the field to put some wear and tear on the mind and body of the opponents best player.

 

And keep in mind, roughing-the-passer flags do NOT count toward the two personal fouls for ejection rule. So players could do it over and over and the only penalty is 15 yards. Maybe there is another rule I'm unaware of? Or maybe they could eject someone for unsportsmanlike conduct after a bunch of them?

Some may say it's low brow. Classless. Etc. I say people don't remember the penalties - they just remember the victories. 

it was essentially Gregg Williams approach to Brett favre. I think as long as any given hit is intended to be legal it’s not the end of the world if a few pick up flags.you can quickly cross a line with that though.

[The Jokeman]

Do you want to see retribution of opposing guys doing the same to Josh Allen? 

[Einstein]

3 minutes ago, FireChans said:

"Hitting the opposing QB a lot to rattle him" is about as novel of a strategy as "score more points than the other team"

 

It’s less “hit the opposing QB a lot” than it is “hit him no matter what and just accept that you will get a ton of flags”.

 

But as others mentioned, the flaw in this is that you open your QB up to retaliation of the same treatment.

 

 

2 minutes ago, NoSaint said:

it was essentially Gregg Williams approach to Brett favre.

 

Yes, exactly.