Tuesday musings: Artis Hicks and his blurry vision

by 3k on Oct 13, 2009 8:24 AM CDT in 2009 St. Louis Rams regular season

I mulled over making this longer and including some ranting on the idea of the challenge flag, but it's Tuesday. Really, that's one of the best excuses one can give.

"Mr. O.J. Simpson, is it not true that you killed your wife?"

"Yeah, but it was Tuesday."

"Your honor, the prosecution would like to drop all charges! Set this man free!"

Some photo evidence of the Gary Gibson injury and some red flag yak after the fold.

So I've been looking around this morning to see what the punishment will be for Artis Hicks' late shove on Gary Gibson, and I can't find anything. I'm slowly starting to think he'll go without punishment, something that would be beyond unfair. I'll get to the sense of justice that should be involved, but let's recap the situation.

Minnesota leads 17-3 early in the 3rd after a wonderfully executed 3 and out by the Rams. Textbook. After two quick first downs and a 1st down run by Chester Taylor, Minnesota's got a 2nd & 7 from their own 36. The call is for a double juke pass. Favre pumps to his left, fakes the handoff to Peterson, and then unleashes a classic Favreian bullet downfield to Sidney Rice who cuts under rookie Bradley Fletcher for a 47 yard gain. Good job of isolating the rookie CB and taking advantage. Once Rice is ushered out of bounds, the camera cuts to Gibson on the ground, taking his helmet off. What happened? Let's look at the evidence. Bailiff, photograph A, if you please:

Here you see the line area just after Favre threw the ball. Nearly everyone is now headed that direction or at least looking that way. Gibson is circled in yellow; he got a good push on RG Anthony Herrera. Artis Hicks, the backup tackle who filled in on the right side for the injured rookie Phil Loadholt, is circled in purple. Photograph B...

With everyone turned to see if Sidney Rice can make the grab, save for James Hall who is being dry humped by LT Bryant McKinnie, Hicks shoves Gibson in his right shoulder well after an acceptable point. Resulting in -

Gibson lands awkwardly on his left leg as his ankle twists backwards and his knee contorts underneath his 300 pound frame.

Was it cheap? Yes. In fact, it's the exact kind of thing we might expect Richie Incognito to do, no? And that's really my jump off. If this was Incognito, don't you think this would have gotten a flag during the game? How did the back judge miss that? And why is it taking the NFL so long to dole out fair punishment? We lost a starting DT for the season to a blatant cheap shot. If Cogs had done this to Kevin Williams, they would have had a statement and a suspension ready as soon as the clock ran out.

I know; we're the Rams, and the NFL could give a shit less about us. Still, to see something like this come to pass without any discipline from the league would be beyond disappointing, especially when Hicks shrugs it off with an unbelievable excuse:

Hicks defended the hit when a reporter asked him about it Monday. He said that he believed Gibson was still engaged with left guard Anthony Herrera at the time.

Uh, no.

So what think you, Rams fans? Is this just an extension of hard-nosed offensive line play or was Artis Hicks playing dirty? Keep in mind, the game was Sunday. If it was today, he could have just said, "Yeah, it was late, but cmon, it's Tuesday"...

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Dirty.

Definitely dirty. I didn’t see the game, but judging by those pictures, and the way Gibson was turning to follow the play, there’s nothing else I can call it. But the Vikes are winning, and if the refs start to call some of them dirty players, then they undermine everything the NFL stands for…right?

Just more proof that to dig themselves out of this hole the Rams have to play bigger, meaner, stronger, and more disciplined to get out of the hole they’re in. Oh, and watch their backs.

THIS year's the year. I hope....

by thisguy on Oct 13, 2009 8:55 AM CDT reply actions

Ummm... still engaged?

.. clearly he is FOS… dir-tay

"The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall." - Vince Lombardi

by VTramsFan on Oct 13, 2009 8:59 AM CDT reply actions

especially when you think about what Vobora got fined for...

before his PED suspension

Turf Show Times

by Ryan Van Bibber on Oct 13, 2009 9:22 AM CDT reply actions

Oh yah by the way, It seems the other teams are allowed to use the new anti-Ram blocking scheme called “knees in the back after tackling”. Check out Mckinney’s tackle on Hall. It’s really a tough haul for our Pass Rush when tackling does not draw a flag. We get flagged if we give the opponents a mean look.

by Knoxfan on Oct 13, 2009 10:57 AM CDT reply actions

Did I miss the 'red flag yak'?

Btw, it was dirty as hell. I saw the Vikings make like 3 cheap shots on Sunday.

Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.

by Tackle Box on Oct 13, 2009 11:58 AM CDT reply actions

My bad

I took out the red flag yak and left that sentence. I refuse to edit it out as a testament to my poor proofreading skills.

Your uncle molests collies.

by 3k on Oct 13, 2009 2:27 PM CDT up reply actions

What about...

sending your evidence into the NFL league office requesting they review the tape…or better yet (since they wouldn’t listen to you, a lowly Rams fan) send it into Spag’s office. He should be able to request a review by the officials. At the very least, let them know they missed the call and subsequently a young pro is out for the season. Then again, the coaches review all the tapes so I would think they already caught it and are doing nothing about it.

Very, very disgusting.

Go Rams!

"We can't run. We can't pass. We can't stop the run. We can't stop the pass. We can't kick. Other than that, we're just not a very good football team right now." --- Bruce Coslett, New York Jets Head Coach circa 1990s

by Nbr1RamFan on Oct 13, 2009 12:39 PM CDT reply actions

espically

to a guy like Gibson who is working extremely hard to try to be on this team. And guys like carriker who work half as hard as Gibson can sit on the sides drinking Gatorade. but i would deffently like the nfl to see that I know football is a violent game and isn’t for the soft but when a plays up the field theirs no need for that.

by keeperskillz24 on Oct 13, 2009 1:20 PM CDT reply actions

It's crap

Since when did the Rams become the “red-headed step child”? This was BS and I couldn’t believe a flag wasn’t thrown.
The worst part is, with our team we can not afford to loose any more players…we are bad enough.
I can not imagine the league would be willing to take tapes or complaints from fans. They would be bombarded with stuff every week.

by CaliRamMan on Oct 13, 2009 4:19 PM CDT reply actions

Lemons?

If life gives you lemons…you go whoop arse the next game! Hope the rams start playing with a chip on the shoulder, this was a huge loss since Gibson was developing into a better player than Carricker was. I hate to see Gibson go down but line play is always the dirtiest, and it didn’t look like he was trying to injure him, the guy was probably pissed that Gibson was killing him and tried to send him a message. The hits just keep coming thou, with MJD coming to town we lose our DT?! I like our offense against them as long as we run plays away from Henderson/Harvey on the D-line, and if our D can keep stopping the run I almost like our secondary in this one. Lets get a win boys!

by kinzav29 on Oct 13, 2009 7:12 PM CDT reply actions