NFL says Suh's hit on Cutler was legal; issue over?

• Suh sacked Cutler violently to the ground late in the first half of Monday's 13-7 Bears win.
• NFL spokesperson said it was a legal hit; Cutler called it "clean."
• "I can't control my momentum, especially at that high a speed," Suh said Monday.

Ndamukong Suh appears to be in the clear on his big hit on Jay Cutler, and the Bears quarterback and others said Tuesday that's just how it should be.

Suh sacked Cutler violently to the ground late in the first half of Monday's 13-7 Bears win, injuring Cutler's ribs and resuscitating talk that he's a dirty player.

An NFL spokesperson said it was a legal play, and Cutler said the play was "clean" and Suh is "a good player."

"It was a tough hit, and he caught me just right," Cutler said on his radio show on Chicago's WMVP-AM (1000), via the Chicago Tribune. "It was an awkward fall more than anything.

"I knew it was my ribs, and it wasn't my shoulder or head or anything like that. His knee and the ball got caught in my ribs. … I knew on my way down it wasn't going to be good."

Suh said after the game the hit was "simply a football play."

With just over five minutes to play in the first half, he flushed Cutler from the pocket, wrangled him by the left arm and flung him hard to the ground, bending him over his left leg.

Bears trainers attended to Cutler on the field as Suh leaned in to make sure he was OK.

Cutler eventually walked off under his own power, missed one play, returned, then went to the locker room for another series to have his ribs examined.

"I can't control my momentum, especially at that high a speed," Suh said Monday. "I'm chasing him, he's running away from me. My whole goal is just to get the quarterback down and make a play and get us off the field or move on to the next play."

Bears receiver Brandon Marshall took exception to the hit after the game, tweeting to Suh, "What u did to Jay wasn't cool. Great players don't have to do that." And, "Something I've learned and now passing down to you. Succeed with character."

Marshall went a step further on ESPN's "First Take" on Tuesday, saying "the leg whip that Ndamukong Suh placed on our quarterback Jay Cutler, that was dirty."

"He can be one of the best D-tackles that ever done it, but he cannot do that that way," Marshall said. "And if you look at it, come on, this is not wrestling. You don't leg-whip someone, you don't do that. That's not clean."

Lions coach Jim Schwartz said the hit was clean and a necessary play against a good quarterback who gave the Lions fits Monday.

"Ndamukong was able to get a hold of his shirt sleeve and had to get him down on the ground," Schwartz said. "We've seen him be in the grasp and be able to throw. We're going to try to get him on the ground the best we can and Ndamukong's a big, physical player. It's just part of the game. He wasn't in the pocket, we didn't hit him high, didn't hit him low, just tackled him very hard."

Dave Birkett writes for the Detroit Free Press, a Gannett property.