Earl Thomas finally got his first sack but a soft personal foul call took it away

My colleague Steven Ruiz often calls Earl Thomas “an alien,” because for so long he was able to patrol so much of the field and make one of the most formidable defenses of all time so formidable. Now he’s figuring out how to play in a completely different system for the Ravens, one where he’s asked to start closer to the line, and thriving.

Now in his tenth season, Thomas, for all he’s accomplished, has never had a solo sack. In fact, he didn’t get credit for a half sack until this year (which probably says something about how strictly Pete Carroll stuck to his scheme with the Legion of Boom.)

But today Thomas got clear on a blitz and leveled Buffalo’s Josh Allen, jarring the ball loose. It was fitting: Of course Earl Thomas’ first sack would be a strip sack. And then a flag came in, for personal foul.

Uh. Yeah. We’ve certainly written our fair share of posts here decrying the type of hits that generally lead to personal foul calls … and this is not one of them. The visual of Thomas putting both hands on Allen’s helmet and shoving it down is not great for a league that protects QBs, but it’s not like he had much other recourse. He was being pushed by 340-pound Brandon Williams, who either was going for the fumble or had lost his balance in the scrum.

It’s a bad call, as this Ravens employee attests.

Send Earl Thomas on more blitzes, Ravens. Let him avenge this call.