This week Goodell has hit the Seymour ATM again to the tune of $15,000. In question this time was yet another tackle on an opposing QB. Seymour’s fine comes as a result of the Raider defender tackling Matt Schaub below the knees, a clear violation of the Brady Rule.

That’s $40k in two weeks if you’re keeping score at home. I don’t care how much money you make, that’s a nice amount of coin to cough up simply for doing your job.
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The two plays in questioned occurred on New England’s first drive of the game.

Seymour continued to tackle NFL messiah Tom Brady after the whistle was blown causing a roughing penalty to be called. Now it should be noted that the Pats were also called for a delay of game penalty thus negating the play all together. Seymour argued that he couldn’t hear the whistle as the Pats were buried deep in their own territory close to the Black Hole.

Some will say Seymour “slammed” Brady to the ground. Those of us that have played or understand the game would actually call it a “tackle”. Seymour stands 6’6”, weighs over 300 pounds and has a mean streak longer than DiMaggio’s hit streak. Trust me. If he slammed Brady then the golden boy would not even have recognized his super model wife in a lingerie ad.

For that first misgiving Seymour was fined $7,500

But that is somewhat debatable being that the play was considered reckless after the play was blown dead.

What is highly debatable is the reasoning behind tacking on another $7,500 for Seymour’s facemask penalty against BenJarvus Green-Ellis. Now that warranted a flag. No debate there. But what point is the league making in handing out a fine for the mistake?
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Well, things don’t always go as planned.

For whatever it’s worth the Raiders actually limited Brady to his most pedestrian effort of the season. 226 yards is usually the kind of production Brady you’d expect of Brady in the first half. Instead that was the total the Raiders bullied out of Brady for the entire game thanks to constant pressure and close coverage.

Well, close coverage on everyone except Wes Welker.

Eventually somebody out there is going to figure out a way to remove Welker from the Patriot passing attack. Too bad for the Raiders they couldn’t be that team.

Of Brady’s measly 16 completions 9 went to Welker. The diminutive receiver’s 158 yards accounted for 70% of New England’s passing game. No other Patriot – other than Chad Ochiocinco – caught more than one ball and even then Chad only had two catches.

In theory it would appear that had the Raiders put together a better plan to contain Welker then we might have seen a different result Sunday.

Well, that would be true if the Raiders fared better against the league’s worst running game.
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