As expected, Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt wasn’t fined this past week for his helmet-to-helmet hit on Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Hundley in the fourth quarter of the team’s Week 12 Sunday night game.
The hit by Watt on Hunfley came during a sack and the likely reason why he wasn’t fined was because he had essentially turned himself into a runner by attempting to avoid pressure from other pass rushers.
Packers head coach Mike McCarthy noted during his post-game press conference that he believed it was a helmet to helmet hit and also said that the team trying to see if Hundley was fine to continue caused delays in the next play being called.
“Our last series, clearly we were in the two-minute mode. The helmet-to-helmet hit on the first down kind of set things back. McCarthy said. “You could see we were late getting the second play in. Then when we got to third-and-long, I obviously played for overtime. I thought we were able to flip the field possession with 17 seconds left.”
The fact that Watt wasn’t flagged or fined for the hit in question tells you all you need to know about the legality of it. It was his fifth sack of the season and a very meaningful one at that.
