I would sort of agree with this if Clay was nowhere near the play. The fact is the rule you are proposing leaves Barbre in a no win situation. He either illegally blocks or he allows Clay to make the tackle. Did he need to hit him so hard, probably not. However, he probably wanted to make sure he took Clay out of the play so you hit him as hard as you can.
Originally Posted by: TheKanataThrilla
I believe sschind is saying Babre did what he had to do to make the block and that is the way I saw it during the game on replay and I didn't think about it again until this post. If true, then sschind is necessarily correct in what he is saying.
When I re-looked at the play, I saw the play more like you, that he [probably] used more force than necessary. Now if he did; then it is [probably] a penalty.
If I was Babre's coach I wouldn't have said anything in the film room to dampen the celebratory cheers and high 5s for the hit; but in the quiet of the afternoon I'd remind him that this is not how one executes a seal block. If you look a the play in slowemo, Babre did launch [more of a lunge] and had Clay turned his back a bit the flag would have come out. Plus, you want control of the player on a seal block, not make it an all or nothing collision. By controlling CM3 you make certain he's not in on the play and you're in better position to come off the block and slow down other pursuit.
Given their relative speed, perhaps Babre felt he could not seal him off and he felt the lunge was his only recourse; if so, then the hit couldn't have be any less violent and sschind is again necessarily correct.