After a dominant 34-13 win over one of the team's biggest rivals, there was a lot to be happy about coming away from the game on Thursday night. However, one thing that still left a sour taste in Eagles fans' mouths was a penalty that was called on Michael Bennett when he hit Eli Manning towards the end of the 2nd quarter. It was a penalty that allowed the Giants to continue their drive instead of being forced to kick a field goal. It had the potential to change all momentum and allow the Giants to score an undeserved touchdown. Thankfully the Eagles defense shut the Giants down on all three plays that took place inside the 10-yard line, making the Giants settle for a field goal anyway.
It was a controversial call from the minute the flag was thrown. During the game the official NFL officiating Twitter account posted a clip of the play, and explained why the play was considered a foul and why the referees threw a flag.
In their explanation, they completely ignore that Bennett started his hit on Manning squared up, and when he lands on Manning he began to turn to land on his shoulder, which would prevent his full body weight to land on Manning.
A former NFL defensive tackle chimed in on the controversial penalty, citing that wanting defensive players to avoid putting weight on Quarterbacks will cause defensive players to injure themselves.
We've already seen one NFL player get injured this season trying to avoid the body-weight penalty. Bennett did everything he could to not put his weight on Manning, but seemingly not enough.
The NFL needs to scrap this ludicrous rule before it ends up directly affecting an outcome of a game, which would lead to outrage from fans of the losing squad.
Bennett has been amongst the Eagles' best pass-rushers this season, and without this penalty (and the other outrageous one on Bennett from the Vikings game), it would be more known how much of an impact Bennett has made to the Eagles defensive line.
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