I feel so crappy complaining, especially because it falls into one of those categories where people use hindsight to criticise an 'in-the-moment' decision made by a person they could never be in a position they could never handle, but...
I like griffin running. I liked it last year. I thought the criticism was... misplaced or unwarranted. I thought it was what made griffin special, I thought it was made this team dangerous to play against.
But there's a fine line between griffin taking off and making the defense not leave open space hanging out in the middle of the field, and griffin exposing himself to unnecessary hits. when he goes towards to sideline, and then cuts it back, he's exposing himself unnecessarily; just step out of bounds. when he takes off in the open field and doesn't slide but instead waits until the last minute to dive forward to squeeze between two hits he's exposing himself unnecessarily.
when he says he's 'baiting' players to hit him late out of bounds to get a 15 yard penalty, it's ABSOLUTELY taking unnecessary hits and that comment floored me. Those hits are awkward and someone lost their QB for the season yesterday with one of those hits.
i realize that the term unnecessarily is quite subjective; that the game was on the line yesterday, and that that game was going to make or break the season. i also realize it's a fine line a superb athlete is making split second decisions trying to walk. but...
stop taking unnecessary hits robert. you're going to give me a heart attack before i'm 35 if we're both lucky. if it winds up costing you your career i may get diagnosed with severe clinical depression :\
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