Sep 19, 2012; St. Louis, MO, USA; Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III (10) looks at the crowd during the first half against the St. Louis Rams at the Edward Jones Dome. Mandatory Credit: Photo by Scott Rovak-US PRESSWIRE
After the Washington Redskins beat the New Orleans Saints benefiting from Robert Griffin III’s coming out party many thought the St. Louis Rams wouldn’t be much of a hurdle en route to a 2-0 record. The Rams though tripped up the Redskins and won the game 31-28 but some seem to think that there was some ‘unprofessional’ behavior on the field.
“There was some extracurricular stuff going on after the plays,” Griffin said. “They were doing a lot of dirty things. I still think they have an extremely good team, that doesn’t take anything away from them, but the game was unprofessional. Who am I to talk? I’ve barely been a pro for very long, but from what I experienced against the Saints compared to that game, it was definitely unprofessional and it does need to be cleaned up.”
Interestingly enough, the St Louis defense only recorded 1 sack, and only 4 QB hits according to ESPN’s box score of the game. RG3 though did carry the ball 11 times for 82 yards. Griffin though knows how sensitive the NFL is right now following bounty gate and wanted to clarify that he doesn’t think any bounties or extra motivation played a part.
“I don’t want to tip-toe the lines of anything that’s happened with bounties or anything like that, but they were definitely going after me,” Griffin said. “They made it a point, obviously, all week to hit me. Some of the shots were cheap of that nature. But it’s nothing I can control. Teams are going to try to hit me because they don’t think I can take a hit. I think I’ve proved over my career that I can.”
The Rams apparently were no strangers to a little trash talk in addition to the alleged cheap shots
“I remember one play,” RG3 said. “After the play, the guy said: ‘We’re going to hit you every play.'”
“I said: ‘Isn’t this football?’ It’s nothing that I’m not used to. It was extremely weird the way they went about it, though.”
With replacement refs patrolling the field things are tending to get a little more physical as they let more calls go. One glaring example from last week was Golden Tate’s crack back hit on Sean Lee that wasn’t called. A flag was thrown on the play but Bruce Carter of the Dallas Cowboys was called for unnecessary roughness following a light shove on Russell Wilson as he went out of bounds. The NFL fined Golden Tate $21,000 yesterday.
“You have to have people take control,” coach Mike Shanahan said regarding the replacement officials. “And there wasn’t any control in that game. Hopefully officials next week will take control. That’s what you have to do as an official.”