Ndamukong Suh Jake Delhomme

When the Detroit Lions took Nebraska’s Ndamukong Suh second overall in this year’s NFL draft, they were expecting an instant impact player. In one sequence of Saturday night’s preseason game against the Browns, Suh gave the Lions a little more than they wanted to see with a rather…enthusiastic facemask penalty while taking down Browns quarterback Jake Delhomme.

The play actually started out as exactly what the Lions dreamed of when they drafted Suh – he got through two different blockers with relative ease and made his way to Delhomme in short order, forcing him to throw the ball away. All of that’s good. The obvious facemask penalty Suh committed before putting Delhomme in a headlock and throwing him to the ground, however, didn’t fly.

Since Suh didn’t actually injure Delhomme, it’s pretty funny – the announcers couldn’t tell quite what had happened at first, saying Suh “might have gotten a facemask.”

Then, when the replay showed the facemask, along with the ensuing choke hold, was comically obvious, all they could do was say things like, “…gets inside the helmet, then he tries to take the head with him. You can’t do that; the quarterback needs that.”

Video of the play below. If Suh can just do everything prior to the penalty – and then keep himself in check – on a regular basis, he’ll be a star.