The Seahawks weren’t happy with a penalty on guard James Carpenter on Monday night that negated a deep touchdown pass from Russell Wilson to Percy Harvin. But the league office was happy the penalty was called.
NFL head of officiating Dean Blandino says Carpenter took a shot at a defenseless defensive lineman on the ground, and deserved to get flagged for a personal foul.
“That’s a foul. A player on the ground gets defenseless player protection,” Blandino said in the NFL’s weekly officiating video. “You can finish that block if it’s all one continuous act. . . . But once we separate, and we have this separate act of driving down on the player to the head or neck area, that’s a foul for unnecessary roughness. . . . He makes contact with the arm, the forearm to the head or neck area. That’s a foul for unnecessary roughness.”
That’s going to come as a big surprise to the Seahawks. Seattle offensive line coach Tom Cable said Carpenter was playing just the kind of smash-mouth football that Cable teaches.
“It was [a bad call],” Cable said. “He just finished it. I always tell those guys: You don’t worry about stuff like that as long as you’re doing it right. If it’s late, if it’s something that’s stupid, I don’t want it. But that wasn’t.”
Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll called the officials’ decision to call a penalty on Carpenter “outrageous.” But Blandino is the person the officials answer to. And Blandino says it was the right call.