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It was an ugly scene in Cleveland on Thursday night, when Myles Garrett ripped off Mason Rudolph's helmet and struck his unprotected headwith it.

But experts in head and brain injuries told USA TODAY Sports it could've been far worse.

"The number one thing youd worry about (when) being hit in the head by a football helmet, when you dont have a football helmet on your head, is a skull fracture," saidRobert Cantu,medical director of the Concussion Legacy Foundation."And a skull fracture, and the associated brain trauma, could have killed him or produced a very serious brain injury."

Mason Rudolph, left, reacts after being hitting in the head with his helmet by Myles Garrett.(Photo: Ken Blaze, USA TODAY Sports)

Cantu and others said there were several factors that prevented that from happening Thursday night in the waning seconds of the Cleveland Browns' 21-7 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, however.

Rudolph, 24, benefitted from both the velocity and location of the blow, they said. Garrett struck the quarterback with the helmet near the top of his head, where the skull is at its thickest, as opposed to near his ear or temple area, where it's thinner. And he was hit with the open side of the helmet, rather than the top.

"It wasnt just bang, completely direct, at a high velocity,"said sports medicine specliast Dennis Cardone, the co-director of NYU Langones Concussion Center."A high velocity direct hit, with a helmet,on him wouldve been tough. That certainly wouldve caused a significant injury."

Cardone added that while death is ceratinly a possible outcome of a severe head impact, "it certainly wouldn't be typical"in a situation like the one that unfolded Thursday night. He believes injuries like skull fractures, concussions, brain bleeding and even neck injuries would be more common in this instance.

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Garrett, for his part, has been suspended without pay for at least the remainder of the season as a result of the incident the longest suspension in NFL history for a single act on the field. He said in a statement Friday that he "lost my cool" and publicly apologized to Rudolph, who missed one start earlier this year with a concussion.

Gerald Grant, a professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University, said it would be possible to model the potential impact of a helmet-to-head collision like the one that occurred Thursday, but it wasn't something that he had ever tested.

He said he watched video of the incident alongside a group of engineers and helmet manufacturers in Youngstown, Ohio where, coincidentally, the NFL officially kicked off its "Helmet Challenge" on Thursday, in an effort to encourage the development of safer equipment.

"Were all talking about how to make a stronger helmet," Grant said, "but the helmet itself, as a projectile, it could be catastrophic."

The averageNFL helmet weighs between 4 and 6 pounds, according to data from the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab. And while it is designed to protect the head when worn, it is no different than any other 4-pound object when removed and swung toward an unprotected head.

And that's what made the incident so scary to watch, the experts agreed.

"As a neurosurgeon, I was really concerned. I was frightened by it," Grant said."Any exposed head with some projectile like that, youre very worried about that. Because you dont know the possible effects that couldve caused."

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.

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Could Myles Garrett have killed Mason Rudolph when he struck QB with helmet? - USA TODAY