As I posted when the hit occurred, the rule states you can't hit a defenseless receiver in the head with the helmet, shoulder, arm or really anything with a forceable blow. In this situation it didn't have to be a helmet to helmet hit.

It was't a cheap shot; it just looked negligent. He hit Finley's head, and nothing but his head, with his left shoulder as he went to the right of him. He wasn't remotely close to hitting anything but the head. He took a shit angle to the play if he wanted to try something legal.

And to Dhazer, some of us, myself included, are also complaining about the ticky tacky bullshit calls. It's an automatic 15 yards if the guy is a half step out of bounds. I miss the days where you had to blow the guy up 5 yards out of bounds to get a call. Breathing on the quarterback is foul. They flag shit if the very top of the helmet grazes the bottom of the opposing player's facemask in a hit that's otherwise a shoulder to the chest. All of this annoys me as much if not more than anyone else I know. And all of these miss the entire point if the point is truly player safety (I think it's higher scoring because that sells, but that's aside the point).

There's a difference between the the blatant head shots (Meriweather), which serve no purpose to the game, risk severe injury, and really should be cut out; the negligent hits (Iloka), which should also be discouraged; and the incidental to borderline, which in most cases I don't think should be called. Yet, the flags have come more so for the incidental/borderline and remain strangely absent for the most obvious of head shots.

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My best guess is, the reason there was no penalty thrown is because it wasn't helmet to helmet, even though it was illegal by the same rule. Officals have just been trained to watch for the helmet to helmet. Personally, I am sick of all these penalties. Penalties don't change the players actions. The only thing that does, is lots of money being taken and suspensions.

What I think the league should do is take the penalty away unless it is a spear like it was back before they started all this defenseless player junk. Flag for spears and leave the rest go during the game. And then let the league go over each tape and look at all the hits, and fine and suspend for the "illegal" ones.

There are just to many flags changing the game from incidental contact.

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When I watched and rewatched the play, it never looked like he was even trying to hit Finley, It looked like he was going after the ball the full time.

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You can't fine every player every time there‘s a concussion. You can normally tell whether a player is looking to strike a guy intentionally in the head. What Brandon Meriweather did was intentional. George Iloka was just playing football.

It’s time the NFL places these plays along with roughing the passer calls up for review. For example, in the San Francisco and Indianapolis game, they flagged Donte Whitner because a play looked violent. Replays showed there was no head-to-head collision, though. I think a coach should be able to challenge that penalty. If not, the refs are basically handing out 15 free yards. It’s becoming detrimental to the game. It's impossible to regulate these hits without influencing the outcome. I'm glad the NFL is doing something about cheap shots, but these rules need tweaking.

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