Mississippi State Got Screwed With One Of The Most Insane Targeting Calls You'll Ever See
I mean, what the fuck are we even doing anymore? Jayden Daniels left his feet, jumped right into the defender and was rewarded with 15 yards and having a Mississippi State player thrown out of the game — as well as the first half of the Bulldogs' next game.
I understand what the intent of the targeting rule was when it was implemented. Obviously everyone wants football to be as safe as possible. But I would argue there has not been a more misapplied rule in sports over the last five years and that's not to even mention the disproportionate consequences of losing a starter for the remainder of a game and possibly part of another one.
The rule isn't going anywhere. But at a bare minimum, we need to adopt a system similar to the old two-tiered system for facemask penalties. There should be targeting, which is a 10-yard penalty if you want to call it on plays like the one above, and malicous targeting, which is 15 yards and results in an ejection. The overwhelming majority of current targeting penalties would fall into the first category and even if the calls are a little soft, the defenders would stay in the game and everything would keep moving.
Stop kicking guys out of games for stuff like this. It's insane.