Omar Bolden lay on the ground after getting hit late by San Francisco’s Anquan Boldin on Saturday. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)
Omar Bolden’s night ended early Saturday, but not by choice.
The Broncos’ safety and leading kick returner was laid out by San Francisco’s Anquan Boldin in the waning seconds of the first half. Boldin bull-dozen Bolden late and was assessed a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty.
The hit kept Bolden out of practice Monday with sore ribs and prompted a call by coach Gary Kubiak to the NFL’s vice president of officiating, Dean Blandino, for an explanation of the ruling.
“I was a little confused, to be honest with you,” Kubiak said Monday. I talked to Dean this morning about it. We have the rule in place when you’re coming back to your goal line how things have to take place. It was described to me that as long as it’s between the waist and the neck, it’s okay. They thought that the biggest thing there was that it was late. When you’ve got questions with something, you dial him up and don’t always like the answers, but you ask. It was explained to me. That’s as far as I’ll go.”
Kubiak was asked if he thought the hit was a peel-back block, which the league banned in 2013.
“I just know that it’s a play that we’re very conscious of in football,” he said. “Anytime you’ve got your players going back toward our goal line, we have to coach our players a certain way to block and attack. If anything else, it was just a good topic of conversation.”
