We touched on this briefly in the takeaways column, but the viral clip of Nick Sirianni calling someone a “motherfucker” on the sidelines was in response this play specifically:

Amos was whistled 15 yards for a low block penalty and Sirianni reacted as such:

“Fucking motherfucker.”

That made me laugh at the time, but going back and watching the play again, it was totally justified. Not sure if you remember, but they actually updated the rules on low blocks last offseason, which expanded enforcement.

Wrote Tom Pelissero at the time, for NFL.com:

…the league has given the thumbs up on a proposal first brought by the competition committee that expands prohibition against blocking below the waist. The approved proposal illegalizes blocking below the waist by offensive and defensive players on scrimmage downs when contact occurs beyond five yards on either side of the line of scrimmage and more than two yards outside of either offensive tackle.

The league had previously outlawed blocks below the waist by players of either team after a change of possession or during kicks. This update expands the rule to scrimmage downs, leaving the aforementioned rectangle of pre-snap space as the last real estate in which blocks below the waist are permitted.

This was a common sense player safety update, pretty much congruent with other rule changes that had been made in previous years. You may recall they clamped down on chop blocks and crack back blocks as well, because they didn’t want guys diving at each other’s legs or hitting them from the blind side and causing injuries. You don’t often see low block called for defensive players, but in this case Lane Johnson is in space without the ball and Amos goes for his legs without making a play on the ball carrier. It’s similar to this play from what I believe was the 2021 preseason:

https://twitter.com/SNFRules/status/1426869942234800128?s=20&t=mvCvTp2e0mTqJs96P-33wg

That’s the rule now. Can’t dive like that. In this case, it could have put Lane Johnson out for the season. Sigh of relief there.