The NFL has a thick rulebook and a detailed fine schedule, making it difficult to imagine how both won't be used to issue a significant penalty this week to St. Louis Rams defensive back Lamarcus Joyner.

Joyner, of course, delivered the illegal shot that knocked Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater unconscious Sunday at TCF Bank Stadium. I was shocked at how divided social media was on the play, but there seems no doubt to me that Joyner violated NFL rules protecting players who slide, and his hit caused Bridgewater's concussion.

Depending on how the NFL classifies the infraction, Joyner will be fined at least $8,681, but likely more. If Bridgewater is deemed to have been a "defenseless player," a term that seems created for the position he was in, Joyner's minimum fine will be $23,152. Because he has no known history of such hits, Joyner is unlikely to be suspended.

Let's take a closer look at the play. Bridgewater scrambled 5 yards for a first down and then initiated a feet-first slide with 13 minutes, 18 seconds remaining in the game. Joyner dove at him with his left forearm arched at a 90-degree angle. I received multiple tweets from those who thought Joyner barely made contact, but the replay shows his upper left arm hit Bridgewater's facemask, causing the helmet to bounce violently off the turf.

Bridgewater was diagnosed with a concussion and must pass through the league's mandatory concussion protocol in order to be eligible to play in the Vikings' game Sunday at the Oakland Raiders.

Referee Ronald Torbert penalized Joyner 15 yards for unnecessary roughness, and the rules in this area seem clear. According to Rule 7, Section 2, Article 1 (d)(1), "A defender must pull up when a runner begins a feet-first slide." The rule goes on to note that contact is legal if a runner has "already committed himself and the contact is unavoidable." But even in those cases, the rule notes, it is a penalty if "the defender commits some other act, such as helmet-to-helmet contact or by driving his forearm or shoulder into the head or neck area of the runner."

Joyner told reporters after the game that he had already "launched" when Bridgewater started sliding, a debatable contention. But even if that were the case, the nature of the ensuing contact not only was illegal but also destroyed the precise tenet of the NFL's campaign to protect quarterbacks who are willing to surrender further yardage in order to avoid big hits.

Whether Joyner intended to hurt Bridgewater is irrelevant, although there was little doubt what Vikings coach Mike Zimmer thought of it. Zimmer noted the "history" of Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, whose theatrics were a major reason the NFL pursued the "Bountygate" investigation against the New Orleans Saints in 2012. At the time, it was reported that Williams encouraged head shots that knocked quarterbacks from the game, an edict that came to be symbolized by a recording in which he told players: "Kill the head, the body will die."

Independent of whatever philosophies Williams might preach, and regardless of intent, Joyner made a big mistake. He delivered avoidable contact to the head of a player no longer trying to ward it off, causing an injury the NFL wants to prevent at every turn. There is no defending or explaining it, and the league must use its array of disciplinary options to address the infraction.

As weather turns, more two-point plays?

We've reached the portion of the NFL schedule when coaches will face more difficult decisions about kicking extra points from the new 33-yard distance. Conventional wisdom suggests that inclement weather will prompt otherwise conservative coaches to utilize the two-point conversion more often.

We saw at least one example of that Sunday at TCF Bank Stadium. After a harrowing set of pregame kicks into the windy end of the stadium, Rams coach Jeff Fisher decided to go for two points after a first-quarter touchdown. The league's game book recorded wind gusts up to 26 mph, and Fisher said: "I let the coaches know after I observed the wind that it was a long kick."

The play failed, prompting a domino effect that impacted the outcome of the game. The Vikings went for two points after a third-quarter touchdown, motivated by the chance to gain a three-point lead, and ultimately the game went to overtime. That first-quarter extra point might have been the difference.

Coaches already had been more liberal with two-point conversions in nice weather, and with one game left to play in Week 9, the league is nearing its totals from the entire 2014 season. Details are in the chart.

In sum: Kickers are converting extra points at 95 percent, in line with preseason projections based on historical field goal rates from 30-35 yards. Meanwhile, the league needs six more two-point conversion attempts to surpass the 59 it recorded last season over 17 weeks.

Competitive impact of the medical timeout

As promised, the NFL's new medical timeout -- which allows an independent athletic trainer (ATC) in the press box to stop the game so that a player can be removed for concussion testing -- has not been obtrusive. We've seen only a handful of them through Week 9, but two instances Sunday demonstrated how they have the potential to influence the outcome of games.

In the first quarter at Gillette Stadium, New England Patriots receiver Julian Edelman absorbed a hit to the head from Washington Redskins linebacker Keenan Robinson. The force of the blow snapped back Edelman's head and nearly knocked off his helmet, resulting in an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

The ATC would have been justified in removing Edelman from the game, but he was quickly on his feet and on his way back to the huddle. On the next play, he caught an 8-yard scoring pass to give the Patriots a 7-0 lead. When the Fox broadcast returned, Edelman could be seen submitting to a sideline concussion test.

Edelman passed and continued playing, but had the ATC removed him immediately for the test, the Patriots would have lost their top receiver -- albeit temporarily -- in the red zone. In initiating this rule, coincidentally, the NFL cited the delayed testing of Edelman in Super Bowl XLIX as the type of gap they hoped to avoid.

Meanwhile, the ATC at Levi's Stadium forced San Francisco 49ers quarterback Blaine Gabbert off the field for two plays after he took a helmet-to-helmet hit from Atlanta Falcons linebacker Philip Wheeler. Gabbert passed the test, but by the time he returned to the game, the 49ers were facing third-and-10 on a possession in which they were hoping to drain the clock.

The ATC's decisions in both cases were defensible. Edelman showed no obvious or immediate concussion symptoms, while Gabbert took a moment before standing up and then walked away from the huddle as if he were trying to collect himself. But taken together, they suggest that it's only a matter of time before a game is changed when a key player either has been taken off the field -- or hasn't -- after a big hit.