Mayhem at Mile High
Dirty Broncos? Unable to stop Matt Schaub, Denver knocks him out with illegalhits
DENVER — The Denver Broncos had no answers for Matt Schaub. So they knocked him from the game with two of the worst back-to-back personal foul penalties delivered on a quarterback that you'll ever see.
These were the type of plays you'd never expect to see in today's post-BountygateNFL. It was like the Mile High stadium complex went back in time to the anything goes NFL of the 1970s for several minutes Sunday afternoon.
Several minutes that left the Texans' franchise quarterback sprawled out on the field, his helmet knocked clear off after a vicious shot to the head. Broncos middle linebacker Joe Mays delivered that head blow. He picked up a 15-yard penalty, but he also forced a player who'd already thrown three touchdown passes against his team to the sidelines — for at least a moment.
Let's just say, it doesn't exactly look good for the Broncos winning an NFL sportsmanship award any time soon.
Just a moment earlier, Von Miller (the second-year star from Texas A&M) had been flagged for slamming Schaub to the ground after he delivered a pass.
No one can say (yet) if it was a concerted effort to get Schaub off the field. But let's just say, it doesn't exactly look good for the Broncos winning an NFL sportsmanship award any time soon.
Mike Pereira — the NFL's former head of officiating — immediately tweeted that Mays should have been ejected and given a $50,000 fine. Pereira called the play "vicious."
Backup T.J. Yates replaced Schaub for a play. Schaub then returned with a bloody ear, having demanded his helmet back almost immediately after getting knocked out. And he threw his fourth touchdown pass of the game with 1:33 left in the third quarter.
Come back to CultureMap for much more on the game and the Texans' reaction to the Schaub battering.