Detroit Lions coach Jim Schwartz got so incensed with a personal foul committed by Gosder Cherilus at the end of a season-opening win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that he benched Cherilus for the Week 2 game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
But Schwartz, in an interview on SiriusXM NFL radio today, doesn’t sound like he’ll be doling out equal justice to Ndamukong Suh for the personal foul that got him kicked out of Thursday's game and cost the Lions points.
“The league is, obviously, going to look at it, and if there’s discipline involved in a case like that, it will come from the NFL,” Schwartz said.
Suh stomped on the arm of Green Bay Packers offensive lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith midway through the third quarter of the Lions’ 27-15 Thanksgiving loss.
Suh was penalized and ejected, and the NFL said it will review the play for potential discipline next week. A fine or suspension is possible.
The Lions organization addressed Suh’s actions in a press release on Friday: “The on-field conduct exhibited by Ndamukong Suh that led to his ejection from yesterday’s game was unacceptable and failed to meet the high level of sportsmanship we expect from our players.
“Ndamukong has made many positive contributions to the Lions on and off the field. We expect his behavior going forward to consistently reflect that high standard of professionalism.
“We have been in contact with Commissioner Goodell’s office and were advised that, like any on-field matter, Thursday’s incident is subject to review by the League office and that any subsequent discipline would be determined by the League office.
After the Lions had stopped Green Bay on third-and-goal to force a field-goal attempt, Suh’s penalty gave the Packers an automatic first down at the 1-yard line. Fullback John Kuhn scored two plays later.
Cherilus was flagged for unnecessary roughness when he hit linebacker Geno Hayes and dived late on a pile with 1:16 left and the Lions trying to kill the clock in a 27-20 victory over Tampa Bay.
After that game, Schwartz called the penalty “stupid” and fumed that “our defense shouldn’t have been in that situation” of having to stop a last-minute drive that could have tied the game. The next week, Corey Hilliard replaced Cherilus at right tackle.
Schwartz explained his decision to bench Cherilus by saying, “The way we finished last week wasn’t our best presentation, and Gosder plays a lot of good football for us and will continue to play a lot of good football for us, but it’s just one of those things that we can’t allow to happen.
While Suh’s penalty was more egregious, Schwartz never criticized the stomping act itself. He said Thursday he didn’t see the incident happen live nor watch the replay, and today on Sirius, he said his view “was pretty well blocked” on the field.
“I think the more important thing there is that that was a situation that we had just had a stop ... and had a chance to get off with just a field goal there, and what Ndamukong did is he put his teammates in a bad position,” Schwartz said. “We had to go right back on the field and have first-and-goal, ended up giving up a touchdown. And we can’t lose our composure at times like that.
“Regardless of what happens, anything else, there’s no excuse for losing our composure on the field. You want to play with passion, you want to play as hard and as physical as you can from snap to whistle, but you never want to do anything to put your team in a bad spot. And Ndamukong did that in two ways. No. 1, we had to go play another snap and end up giving up a touchdown, but then also he wasn’t available for the rest of the game. So we can’t afford that from a great player like Ndamukong.
Schwartz said he and Suh "spent a lot of time together" today but declined to share details of their conversation.
"We do after just about every game," Schwartz said. "There’s going to be things that come up and things like that that we need to address. We did spend time together, but I think I’ll just leave it at that.
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