Jets guard Matt Slauson has taken some criticism for taking out Texans linebacker Brian Cushing low and from behind on Monday night, causing a torn ACL that ended Cushing’s season. But Slauson’s coach doesn’t think he’s a dirty player.
Jets coach Rex Ryan said on ESPN Radio that he saw no reason to believe that Slauson was trying to do anything illegal on the play.
“What I saw on that tape, I don’t remember that specific play, but I would never question our guys as far as trying to injure someone or try and do something not in the confinement of the rules,” Ryan said, via the Star-Ledger.
Ryan suggested that getting hit in the knee from behind is an unfortunate consequence of playing football, and that Cushing was just the victim of a bad blow, not a dirty blow.
“I never saw anything specifically I was just watching our game tape,” Ryan said. “I’ll say this -- we got rolled up a few times in our game, and sometimes in this game you gotta be fortunate to avoid some injury. I don’t know what happened in Brian’s case. Obviously he’s a tremendous football player and I hate to see any player suffer a serious injury.”
Texans fans hated it, too. And many of them now hate Slauson.