Was Collie a defenseless receiver?

I think it was Joe Paterno who said that if the NFL was serious about reducing the severity of hits put on receivers they would remove all face-masks from all players. Players knowing how much damage could be inflicted on their faces by leading with their head on a tackle will drop the incidents dramatically.

Remember we all saw the play in slow motion. He had just caught the ball and took 2 steps, by definition he was not defneseless. The ref threw the flag because he saw it in real life speed and it did look like he was defenseless and when the reciever is laying on the ground knocked out the flag will be thrown every time. Refs cant look at replays and over turn flags or throw flags.

i don't think it was so much defenseless receiver as it was straight up helmet to helmet. that eagles dude rang his bell big time. then when he's already knocked cold, his head just slams into the turf. BAM! tough hit and it sucked all of the air out of that game. even eagles fans were somewhat quiet.

he wasnt defenseless..he cought it turned braced for the impact and got knocked out...even if it was imcomplete how is coleman goingt to stop....he had control of the ball and was hit with a shoulder and the force of impact cause his helment to collide with colemans...i understand that there has to be rules to keep ppl safe...but there needs to be a officating review set up to see the instant replays for everything touchdowns, stepping out bounds, incomplete passes etc....and when the team challenges there is alrdy some1 looking at it and that can speed up the game...but if the team doesnt challenge the guy up in the booth doesnt have to say anything....now for stuff like last nights game for pentalies like that he should be able to overturn them.

He already had the ball and put his own head down. It was a freak thing, not a vicious hit. I do feel bad for him and don't want to sound heartless, but the fact is that's a part of football.

No he just got hit from behind, your nit defenseless when you shrug off the first hit and if that guy gets fined $50,000 i will be pissed

it was helmet to helmet but by mistake. but expect the guy to get fined. im almost 100% sure he is.