Mike Florio ,
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A kerfuffle emerged this week regarding the claim by multiple Vikings defensive players that Lions receiver Kalif Raymond engaged in “ dirty play ” with a blindside (but apparently legal) block on linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel during the Week 9 game. On Thursday, Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores took a softer approach.
“ I didn’t think it was malicious ,” Flores told reporters, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com. “I think it was kind of a bang-bang situation. I see kind of both sides of it. I do think it’s something that maybe [the NFL] will take a look at. I’ll leave it there. Thankfully, there was no big injury and he’s OK. So we’ll chalk it up to football and we’ll let the league kind of look at it and see if they want to take a harder stance or anything like that.”
Raymond, who was coming in motion from right to left, hit Van Ginkel from the side, just after the snap. The block knocked Van Ginkel down; he still tackled Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs for a one-yard loss.
Given the timing of the play, it appeared to be designed that way. And, again, it apparently was not a violation of the existing rule against blindside blocks. The question for the offseason is whether a play like that, when a player going north-south is hit from the side by someone running west-east, should be permitted.
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