It seems like some QBs shouldn’t slide. I get the idea of QBs giving themselves up not to take a hit… but some QBs… stafford definitely included, just don’t seem natural at either the motion or timing. It seems like it puts you in a much more vulnerable position than just taking a hit while upright and running. Why not just brace for a hit and go down forward? Stafford’s back injury looked almost identical to his ribs today. Sliding while getting hit from multiple directions and bundling over. Stafford has survived all kinds of hits and seemed to shake it off when sacrificing his body for a first down or taking a hit in the pocket. It always seems like I’m holding my breath when he tries to give himself up.
Not to mention he gets the least amount of protection on such plays. You can’t tell me some other names wouldn’t be protected with yellow on the field
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When I played baseball I could only do the head first slide properly. No matter how much I practiced the feet first slide it was always awkward looking and feeling. I always worried about getting my foot caught under me.
That’s why you’re not allowed to hit a QB when he slides… Now if you’re @wesleysh21’s level of unathletic and injure your foot/ankle while performing the slide, well then you shouldn’t be playing sports 
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the thing is Matt was in the process of sliding down, Green Bay players didn’t “NEED” to fall on him if they touch him with their hand he is down by contact. At least two players were rolling around on him…that should have been unecessary roughness, but that wasn’t called !! NOW Stafford’s ribs are hurting/aching?
you know he was in some severe pain to come off the field or even go back in the tunnel.
I am torn on this issue, because I have seen QBs take advantage of this and fake a slide or when they are near the sidelines, the defensive player lays off instead of knocking them out of bounds so not to get a 15 yard penalty and then the QB runs on the sidelines to get the extra yards maybe enough for a first down. (Patrick Mahomes). Then you have QBs like Jackson, etc. If you don’t try to hit him, he jukes you and keeps going but if you do hit him and he slides late, you get hit with a penalty.
Stafford can slide ok. Sometimes you haven’t covered enough ground to slide when you need to. I think it’s when he or any other QB is in a position where they’re trying to give themselves up, but have run past a place where they can do it safely, they need to commit to being a runner and go down head first. Trying to get the knee to the ground when guys are surrounding you is not good. He should take some lessons from Hock. He clearly is in ball-protection mode when he’s in traffic, trying to find the least punishing way to the turf. Tuck and roll, baby.
Its a tricky situation for sure, and the defense is being asked to pull off a miracle on some plays to avoid contact with the QB. I’ve seen Daniel Jones take advantage of defenders who weren’t sure whether he was going to slide/go out of bounds or not so he kept running. And what’s weird is Jones is like Lamar Jackson fast once he gets going. Who knew?
The ideal way to go about it is still risky. The defenders are taught to aim at a certain point that if the QB were to slide, they would go right over the guys head. But if he doesn’t slide, you catch him and knock him down. That has backfired a few times when the QB slides late or doesn’t get down far enough, so the defender looks like he’s head hunting the QB and smacks him in the head.
well to me, if any player slides? he’s down/considered down automatically, and if another player (opponent) still touches you it should be roughing/unnecessary roughness.
And you expect a player running at full speed at the player to stop immediately?
Yes, I think that’s definitely the direction the Lions should look in the next draft.
Even picking at 11 or so (though I expect that to get much higher over the next few weeks), the Lions should see somebody like Lance or Zach slide to their pick.
Oh, wait, that’s not the kind of sliding QBs you were talking about.
That’s great in theory and the way they try to enforce it. However in reality the play happens so fast that by the time the QB starts to slide, the defender is already midway into the action of making a hit on the QB. And as Lions2020 said, if you hesitate to see if the QB is going to slide or not…he will run right by you for a big gain.
Mentioning Hock… I wonder if the staff worked with him to get down after catches in traffic after his first couple injuries that he sustained.
Stafford waited until the last possible second to slide. That doesn’t always mean that defenders knew he was gonna slide. He needs more awareness. He should have tried to protect himself. There were too many guys around him. And he got smacked. Plus, that should have been a penalty on GB.
QBs need to get down when they see a defender 4 or 5 yards in front of them. If you want to be a tough guy and try to get the extra yard, you see what can happen.