It might have flown under the radar, but something unusual happened during Arkansas’ ugly win over UAB on Saturday.
Lost in the Razorbacks’ sluggish performance and likely overshadowed by the concern for Brandon Buckhaulter’s health was the fact that multiple Blazers lost their helmets during the game.
On three separate occasions, a UAB player had his helmet come off on the same play as Arkansas received a face mask penalty
“We can’t grab the face mask or the helmet,” Arkansas football coach Sam Pittman said Monday. “Man, their helmets come off easy, (but) we can’t do that.”
The first time it happened has almost been forgotten, as wide receiver Kam Shanks lost his as he hit the ground on a tackle after safety TJ Metcalf grabbed his face mask while running in to try to make a play.
The other two instances received more attention because the helmet came off during the play and the helmetless player was tackled without head protection.
While quarterback Jacob Zeno was fine after being sacked in the closing minutes of the game, Buckhaulter had to be taken off the field on a stretcher and transported to Washington Regional for testing when he was tackled without a helmet late in the second quarter.
It was a scary moment, as the game was delayed and the sellout crowd inside Razorback Stadium went silent for about 8 minutes before the wide receiver managed to hold up his hand to the crowd, prompting a loud ovation from the opposing fans.
Thankfully, UAB announced Buckhaulter was able to fly back to Birmingham with the team and later revealed he had escaped with only a concussion. That’s still serious, especially with what we know about brain injuries and football now, but considering memories of Rawleigh Williams III are still relatively fresh on many Arkansas fans’ minds, it was probably the best-case scenario given how the play looked.
Outcry Against Arkansas Football
As is the case when plays like that happen, there were quite a few fans on social media calling for a more severe penalty than the 15 yards UAB got for the face mask, which was committed by linebacker Xavian Sorey Jr.
Many correctly pointed out that the play is immediately dead when the helmet comes off. Both sides are supposed to stop, whether or not they hear a whistle, or else they’ll be flagged.
However, no flag was thrown when Landon Jackson finished the play with a tackle of the helmetless Buckhaulter.
“They’re supposed to stop when that helmet comes off, and we’re supposed to stop,” Pittman said Monday. “Matter of fact, if they keep going, it’s a penalty on them. And if we keep going, it’s on us. But that was so bam-bam, they just didn’t call it.”
That last part of Pittman’s quote is the most crucial aspect of this particular play, as some have tried to categorize it as a dirty play by Jackson.
Included in that group is respected SEC columnist Kevin Scarbinsky, who actually went so far as to argue Jackson should be suspended for Arkansas’ SEC opener at Auburn because of that play, coupled with him also tackling Zeno after his helmet came off late in the game.
Defending Landon Jackson
The argument, as Scarbinsky puts it in a column for AL.com, is that Landon Jackson should have avoided the hits because the play was dead as soon as the UAB player lost his helmet.
He believes he had time to do just that because, if you watch a slow-motion replay of it, Jackson took three steps before taking Buckhaulter “to the ground, driving his unprotected head into the turf.”
“You can say there’s no way Jackson could have halted his momentum, but watch the tape for yourself,” wrote Scarbinsky, five-time winner of the Alabama Sports Writer of the Year award. “Watch it over and over. Watch it in slow motion, then watch it at full speed. Watch how many steps the incredibly athletic 6-foot-7, 280-pound defensive lineman takes between Buckhaulter having his helmet forcibly removed and Jackson crashing into the totally vulnerable UAB receiver.
“One, two, three, boom. Jackson never lowered his head, which is good, but that means he had his eyes on the target the whole time. That he initiated and completed the tackle regardless is not good.”
While the order of events portrayed is accurate, it lacks the context of actually playing the sport. Jackson did have his eyes on the target the whole time and was running full speed to make a play. Those three steps seem like a lot of time when watching on replay, but in reality, there’s only a split second in which he’d need to process the fact that the ball carrier’s helmet came off — not exactly something that happens every day — and then adjust his route.
Also, Buckhaulter’s initial reaction isn’t to just stop playing, either. He turns his head upfield like he’s going to continue running before he’s taken to the ground.
For those sitting on the couch and watching the slow-mo replay, it’s easy to say Jackson should have avoided the tackle. Doing that in the heat of the moment is much harder. The same argument has been made by NFL fans upset by the extra-sensitive rules protecting quarterbacks.
The end of the play looked bad with Buckhaulter landing on his head, but Jackson didn’t seem to do it on purpose. It wasn’t as if he suplexed him like Sorey did to Brennan Presley in overtime at Oklahoma State a week earlier. (In fact, Sorey coming in high and ripping the ball carrier’s helmet off in the first place was probably the worst part of the play, especially watching it live and at full speed.)
Jackson’s second “offense” was even less egregious, as he was trying to get around right tackle DJ Jones, all 6-foot-5, 310 pounds of him, to make the play and might not have immediately seen Zeno’s helmet come off, again leaving him only a split second to chose not to make a tackle.
Football is Still a Violent Sport
To insinuate that Landon Jackson is a dirty player — which Scarbinsky never explicitly writes, but hints at — completely ignores everything currently known about him.
A true senior in his third season at Arkansas, Jackson has no history of “dirty” plays. He was elected a team captain last season and actually got married during spring ball. The UA puts him in front of the media as often as it can, including sending him to SEC Media Days in back-to-back years, because they know he’s mature and a good spokesman for the team.
Perhaps he could have been flagged for the hit on Buckhaulter — but then again, the officials on the field did not because, as Pittman said, it was a “bam-bam” play. Suggesting he be suspended for an upcoming game after the fact comes off as a bit extreme.
That isn’t to downplay the importance of safety. The game has made tremendous strides, as evidenced by some NFL players even choosing to wear “guardian caps” in actual games, and should continue making an effort in that department.
However, suspensions should be reserved for truly egregious infractions or serial offenders. At the end of the day, no one should be blamed for the Buckhaulter play. The injury was the product of a lot of things happening very quickly within a sport played at high velocities.
Throw in football’s inherently violent nature on top of that, and these periodic incidents are unfortunately unavoidable.
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