This questionable ‘roughing the passer’ penalty on Aaron Donald was a joke

Now that Aaron Donald’s holdout is over — and he’s no longer on a snap count — opposing offensive linemen are left shaking in their boots heading into games.

And on Thursday night, Donald showed why.

In the third quarter of the game, he used a swim move to shed his block perfectly and then drilled Brian Hoyer, right as he released the ball.

For some reason, though, Donald was hit with a penalty for roughing the passer. We’d love to know why, because that was a perfectly clean hit.

This was roughing the passer on @AaronDonald97 smh #LARvsSF #LARams #TNF #NFL pic.twitter.com/oMJjxJvIcf

— Andrew (@Tashville401) September 22, 2017

A punishing hit doesn’t necessarily warrant a flag. That was a bad call and clear overreaction to playing on national TV.