Brace Yourself, Sam; More Hits Are Coming

Terrell Suggs' first-quarter lunge at Sam Bradford's knees Saturday night brought to mind a conversation I had with Suggs' coach, John Harbaugh, the morning after the Ravens' 34-31 win over the 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII.

We were walking out of the New Orleans Convention Center following his news conference and I asked him about his team's strategy against the Niners' speedy quarterback Colin Kaepernick and the zone-read.

Harbaugh readily acknowledged that his defense tried to hit Kaepernick every time he ran the zone-read, whether he kept the ball or handed it off to running back Frank Gore.

"How many times can you run that play?'' Harbaugh said. "Because if you're going to hit the quarterback every play, which is what our goal was to do, you're putting him at risk.''

The strategy is perfectly legal because when a quarterback runs the zone-read, a defense can treat him as a runner until he is clearly out of the play.

If you watch the replay of that play Saturday night, Bradford was not out "clearly of the play'' yet. He had just handed the ball off to Darren Sproles. Suggs, who came in unblocked, had the right to hit Bradford.

Yes, I had a problem with him going at Bradford's knees, particularly in a preseason game when Suggs knew damn well that the Eagles quarterback wasn't going to keep the ball.

But the bottom line is, if Kelly is going to continue to run the zone-read, which obviously is a given, then Bradford had better be prepared for more hits like the one Saturday night.

Because the Ravens hardly are the only team in the league that feel the best way to dissuade a team from running the zone-read is to make them fear for the safety of their franchise quarterback.