Eagles Made Three Dirty Hits Early Against Packers

By Brian Giuffra | Sep 26 2019

The NFL is a violent game played by massive men who are forced into imperfect positions where they're forced to make decisions in nanoseconds. And yet, one must admit, early in the Eagles-Packers game, it felt like the Eagles were caught making some dirty hits.

Not once, not twice, but three times in the first quarter.

Most saw the dirty hit on Packers RB Jamaal Williams by Eagles defensive lineman Derek Barnett, which led to Williams being taken off the field on a stretcher and transported to a local hospital. But on the previous punt, there was another helmet-to-helmet hit and, after that, there was a facemask call on the Eagles' Zach Brown.

All of these, as mentioned, are bang-bang plays. Brown clearly wasn't trying to get a facemask on a first-and-20 play, the special teams hit was nanoseconds of reaction time and Barnett was clearly not trying to injure Williams the way that he did. We must all accept that as fact because that's how quickly all these plays happened.

However, it is always disturbing seeing three plays like this within the first 15 minutes of the game. We can only hope that is the end of it.