After Further Review: Jets-Bears

By popular demand, we're again going to have a post after each game that breaks down some of the controversial decisions from the officiating crew in the game.

Penalty Count

Bears 4-29 (leading to zero Jets first downs)
Jets 12-76 (leading to eight Bears first downs)

Note: This does not include penalties that are declined or off-set.

Plays where the call was obvious, uncontroversial or not visible on broadcast footage

Jets Penalties

Facemask penalty on Darrell Jackson Jr. He didn't like the call but it did look like there was a momentary grab of the face mask as the tackle was made near the line of scrimmage.
Delay of game at their own one-yard line. It was worth a try because they were backed up so far the half-the-distance penalty was negligible anyway, but who's going to be gullible enough to jump offside when it's obvious the offense is trying to draw them off?
Delay of game again. This one was inadvertent, as they ran out of time and didn't get a snap off.
Delay of game on the punt unit. Once again this was deliberate, to give them more room.
Delay of game again, on 4th-and-4 from the seven-yard line. Wouldn't actually have been a first down even if they did get the Bears to jump, which of course they did not.
Defensive offside against Demario Davis to negate a Brandon Stephens interception. Definitely jumped early and was in the neutral zone at the snap. Tyson Bagent perhaps only put this one up for grabs because he knew he had a free play.
Defensive offside on T'Vondre Sweat on 4th-and-1 with two seconds on the play clock. Okay maybe we found someone gullible enough.

Bears Penalties

Illegal block in the back on Elijah Hicks on the opening kickoff. This looked pretty clear, as the return man reversed course across the field and Dane Belton got shoved in the back.
Cole Kmet false start. Flinched on the hard count while lined up out wide.
Theo Benedet offensive holding to negate a 15-yard Kyle Monangai run. Grabbed Jamien Sherwood at the second level and held on a split second too long as Sherwood leveraged to the ball carrier's side. Benedet didn't like this call and it was a little soft.

Penalties warranting further discussion or explanation

Jets Penalties

Illegal touching on Qwan'tez Stiggers. Downed an excellent Austin McNamara punt down the field, which he absolutely did not need to do because it was rolling to a halt. Since he was the first to touch it and had come from out of bounds, that led to a re-kick and the Bears ended up 15 yards further upfield, and took the lead on the next drive. Going out of bounds in and of itself can be a penalty unless you make an effort to get back onto the field of play reasonably quickly. Stiggers did that, and got downfield well to force the return man to let it bounce, then messed up by not knowing the rules.
Illegal hands to the face against Azareye'h Thomas to negate an interception by Sweat. The exact same thing happened against the Lions - Thomas put his hands up to make a conventional jam in press coverage and the receiver's helmet made slight and inadvertent contact with one of his hands, then sold the contact to draw a flag. This came one snap after the Bears were complaining about Benedet's holding penalty so the official may just have been looking at calling any little thing to redress the perceived imbalance.
Harrison Phillips defensive holding. Phillips was double-teamed and as he fought off the double to spin off and get in on the tackle, his arm was across the chest of one of his blockers with a handful of jersey, so it may have looked like Phillips was deliberately preventing that blocker from getting to the second level but clearly he was just fighting for leverage.
D'Angelo Ponds illegal contact on a third down incompletion. Ponds maintained contact with the receiver beyond five yards, but from the replay it looked like the receiver initiated the contact and then leaned into him as he was going down the field to maintain the contact. This was, in fact, a dropped interception by Brandon Stephens, so could have been yet another interception negated by a defensive penalty.
Stephens face mask penalty. Away from the ball. Looked like his hand lightly brushed against the receiver's face mask inadvertently with no grab or forcible contact.
Ponds defensive holding to negate his own interception. This was a fair call, as Ponds grabbed Kalif Raymond around the waist coming out of his break and slowed him down so he could get to the ball first.

Bears Penalties

Illegal block in the back on Jahdae Walker and holding on Sam Roush on a Bears kickoff return. The hold by Roush was very clear as he got beaten upfield by Andre Cisco and wrapped him up. The block in the back was also clear as it prevented Stiggers from making the initial tackle. This is notable solely because this play was the only one on which the Bears were flagged in the second, third OR fourth quarters.

Notable no-calls etc

Here were some of the other notable missed calls, replay situations and controversial moments:

Both spots on the initial goal line stand by the Jets were correct but almost so close that you might not have seen the call changed on the field on some occasions.
Garrett Wilson lost possession of the ball after his first catch, but his forward progress had clearly been stopped so it wasn't a fumble - and he recovered the ball immediately anyway.
Colston Loveland was correctly marked just shy of the marker on a third down catch where Belton made the play.
The officials picked up the flag on one first half play. The replay showed what looked to be an obvious deliberate pick play by the Bears so that was presumably offensive pass interference and it's unclear why they decided against calling that one.
Braelon Allen was stopped on a run where he landed on a defensive player so wasn't down by contact. However, he made no effort to try and reach the ball ahead or wriggle forwards, even though he would have been entitled to the yardage had he done this. It's lucky he didn't have the wherewithal to do this because the ball was then knocked out of his hands but his forward progress was deemed to have been stopped.
Wilson made a tough low catch which seemed correct because his hands were under the ball, preventing it from hitting the turf and then he had secured possession and control before it hit the turf again, if it even did.
Monangai was marked just short on a third down run which looked close.

Let us know what we missed - or misinterpreted - in the comments...