Khristian Boyd had a big hit on DeVonta Smith in Week 3.
The Philadelphia Eagles and New Orleans Saints were in a physical battle in Week 3, and it left a few players injured. One of those players was DeVonta Smith, who was blindsided by rookie Khristian Boyd after catching a pass from Jalen Hurts in the second half. Smith's helmet came off after the hit, and he had to leave the field and was placed into concussion protocol.
Even though there was no flag on the play for the hit, the NFL reviewed the tackle and days later fined Boyd $4,600 for the play.
After the game, Boyd defended himself in an Instagram post.
“I would never deliberately try to give someone a serious injury. Just tried to make a play on the ball. (Be) well soon 6,” the post said.
Saints' Dennis Allen defends his players after big hit
A day after the game, head coach Dennis Allen stood up for his players after DeVonta Smith was put into the concussion protocol for the big hit from Khristian Boyd.
“I'd say our guys play extremely hard, and we're going to compete until the down is over,” Allen said. “I don't think we play dirty. I don't think we ever have played dirty. It's not the way we coach it, not the way we teach it, but we do play hard.
“Look, nobody wants to see anybody get hurt, nobody's trying to hurt anybody and, unfortunately, that's part of the business that we're in. No, we don't play dirty. We don't coach dirty, but we do play hard and we do play physical.”
On the other hand, the Philadelphia Eagles took the hit as a cheap shot, most notably C.J. Gardner-Johnson.
“Man, that's the dirtiest s–t I ever saw in football, bro,” Gardner-Johnson said. “Y'all obviously saw forward progression was stopped. For them to take a cheap shot on one of our key players, it goes to show what type of team that is. They're front-runners.”
The Saints will be looking to bounce back after taking the Week 3 loss, and they'll be facing their division rival Atlanta Falcons in Week 4. There are a few injuries that they'll have to overcome, but they showed in the first two weeks that they can get hot at any moment.
For the Eagles, they'll most likely be without Smith since he's still in concussion protocol, and they probably won't have A.J. Brown as well, which could be a tall task to overcome with their offense.
