Following Friday's game between the Lions and Bengals, Ndamukong Suh received criticism from a variety of outlets for his hit on Cincinnati QB Andy Dalton. Suh threw Dalton to the ground after the ball had already been released and received a penalty for the hit.
The hit, or body slam, looked very similar to the one that Suh had on Jake Delhomme during last year's preseason. He was fined for the hit on Delhomme, and he was also fined for a hit on Jay Cutler during last year's regular season. There's no indication if Suh will be fined for his hit on Dalton, but quite a few people believe he will since a pattern of "dirtiness" is developing with him in the eyes of some. Suh disagrees with this notion, however.
"That's the way I’ve been taught and that's the way I’m going to continue to play," he said. "There's only the fine line of dirtiness and the fine line of aggressiveness. I know to this point and in my own heart that I haven't crossed that line by any means."
Jim Schwartz obviously doesn't want his best defensive player to stop being aggressive, but he did admit that the penalties need to stop not just for Suh, but for the entire team.
"You need to be aware and we need to do a better job with that," he said. "The penalties, I think we only had one that was before the snap, but we had a couple that were after the whistle and those led to points.
"Our defense was playing well; we don’t need to have teams get in field goal position or scoring position just because of penalties."
While there were a couple of weak calls in the preseason opener, the Lions do need to cut down on the amount of penalties they get. Last year that was an issue, and although it may not matter in the preseason, you don't want to be giving up points because of penalties when the regular season rolls around.