Sunday, 5:20ish. Giants rookie Kenny Phillips absolutely pulverizes Pittsburgh’s Mewelde Moore on a pass play. Knocked him out of the game, briefly. It was third down and the Steelers would have been forced to punt. But a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty was called, prolonging the drive momentarily; the Giants picked off a pass a few plays later. The flag drew the ire of FOX’s Troy Aikman.

“I think the league has gone a little to far on some of the calls that they have been making, whether it’s fines later in the week, or calls like we just saw during games. It’s a real slippery slope. and I’m a little concerned with what exactly you tell some of these defensive players.”

The man has a point. Maybe it’s just us – or the HD TV, or improved FOX on-the-field equipment that brings you closer to the sights and sounds of the game – but the league has gotten incredibly violent in recent years, particularly this season. The players are bigger, faster and stronger, and the hits have been bone-crunching. The Giants-Steelers game had a few particularly jarring hits, and at least two of them were delivered by the bruising Brandon Jacobs.

But in regard to Aikman’s assertion that defensive players don’t know what to do, we saw a snapshot of this in the second quarter of the Browns/Jaguars game. On 3rd and 10, David Garrard scrambled away from the rush and headed toward the sidelines. Two Browns defenders – one of them was Willie McGinest – seemed to pull up and avoid hitting Garrard because a penalty there would have prolonged the drive. (Replays confirmed this.) But Garrard didn’t go out of bounds, deftly split the two defenders, and gained the first down and an extra 15 yards. The Jags would score on the drive.

There was also a terrible call against an Eagles defender for a late hit on Falcons QB Matt Ryan – whomever the play-by-play guy was chided officials for the bad call – even though the defender have already launched himself into the rookie just as he was releasing the ball. So what’s the solution without having a replay of every penalty and turning the 3-hour game into a 4-hour marathon?