Cam Skattebo says he'll 'play for free' if the NFL keeps flagging his helmet, and John Harbaugh backs him

Cam Skattebo says he will keep running the same way even if the NFL keeps flagging and fining him for it. His coach is on his side.

Skattebo was penalized in the first quarter of Sunday's 27-21 overtime win at Houston for lowering his head into Texans safety M.J. Stewart at the end of a 7-yard run. The play drew a personal foul for impermissible use of the helmet, and the run came off the board.

"The NFL loves to post me when I do stuff like that, but also wants to take stuff from me," Skattebo said Sunday, according to ESPN. "I'm going to run the ball like I want to run the ball. And if I'm going to continue to get flagged for it or fined for it, I guess I'm going to play for free."

He already has been fined once this month, $7,073 for illegal helmet contact on a running play.

John Harbaugh was shown on the broadcast arguing the call and stayed in the linesman's ear long after the play. On Monday he made his case in plainer terms. "You can't run in there and give tacklers your chest," Harbaugh said. "When you run low, your head's down there, too. You can't move your head off your shoulders. It's a physical impossibility."

Harbaugh said he doesn't think Skattebo is trying to use his helmet as a weapon. "He's leading with his shoulder," he said. "I didn't have a problem with the technique personally at all, but we haven't heard from the league. Maybe they'll be able to enlighten us a little bit on it in terms of what they want us to teach."

The NFL has made a point of stopping offensive players from using the helmet as a weapon, but ESPN noted the infraction still rarely draws a flag. When it does, a back who runs low can lose the yards and get fined, and his coach says he still doesn't know what the league wants him to teach.

The penalty didn't stop Skattebo. He finished with a career-high 124 yards on 17 carries, his first 100-yard game, one week after he played six snaps against New Orleans following a string of costly fumbles.