they have said (by their decisions/flags) for a few seasons now that for tackling/hitting a defenseless player that the defender has to do something unnatural or different than usual in order to protect the head area of the defenseless player.

If they are suddenly reversing course and saying contact to head or neck area is OK as long as the defender is in a normal tackling position, well that could be an approach to take but its different than what we've seen called for a few years now.