After Further Review: Jets-Patriots Officiating

by Site Admin

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

Patriots 6-54 (leading to three Jets first downs)

Jets 8-77 (leading to two Patriots first downs)

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

Jets Penalties

  • Offensive pass interference on Ryan Griffin. This happened off-screen and wasn't replayed but must have been some kind of push-off.
  • Greg Van Roten holding. Let his man get off his block in the running game and clearly seemed to have grabbed him as he was doing so.
  • George Fant holding. This is a commonly-seen call on plays like this. The pressure came from the other side and so the quarterback escaped the pocket to Fant's side and he got caught grabbing as his man gained outside leverage.
  • Marcus Maye horse collar tackle. Although Maye protested this by yelling "I let go", he did pull the ball carrier down by grabbing the inside of the shoulder pads, which is a clear violation.

Patriots Penalties

  • Isaiah Wynn false start. Flinched before the snap.
  • Joejuan Williams defensive holding on Corey Davis. Well away from the ball, but he did seem to grab Davis to impede his progress.

Penalties warranting further discussion or explanation

Jets Penalties

  • Roughing the passer on Shaq Lawson. An obvious call because there was helmet-to-helmet contact. Lawson got to Mac Jones quickly and was too upright as he made his hit. You almost have to anticipate this and position your body to make contact lower these days.
  • Fant holding penalty. On the play, Fant's man got into the backfield and he tried to recover and seal him to the inside. He looked to have almost achieved this but his hand positioning must have been to the outside of the defender to draw the call.
  • Tim Ward lined up in the neutral zone. This was a senseless penalty because Ward was literally level with the ball. He has a great get-off and doesn't need any kind of head start so that was a major concentration lapse. Instead of 3rd-and-a-long-5, the Patriots had 2nd-and-1 and scored their first touchdown a few plays later.
  • Connor McGovern/Ace Carter chop block. Carter picked up the blitzer as he was already engaged with McGovern. If you're going to chip on make a block in this situation, you cannot make contact below the waist. It seemed like Carter realized this too late and didn't cut the blitzer but did stoop to make first contact below the waist so while it wasn't a dangerous chop block that might cause an injury, it probably did meet the criteria to break the rules.
  • Carter illegal block below the waist. You can't block below the waist on a kickoff return and Carter may have been unlucky here because it looked like he tripped. This was erroneously listed in the official gamebook as an illegal block above the waist.

Patriots Penalties

  • JC Jackson pass interference on Corey Davis. This throw landed near the 10-yard line but the penalty was marked at the 31. That's because Jackson grabbed Davis as he got a step on him further upfield. As the announcers said, the ball had to have already been released otherwise it would just be holding and that appeared to be the case. The hold actually seemed to take place at the 25-yard line though, so the Jets got screwed out of several yards. They missed a 53-yard field goal at the end of the drive, so this was important.
  • Wynn holding on Shaq Lawson. Similar to the one on Fant, this would have come down to hand positioning. On an outside run, Lawson had outside leverage but Wynn gained control and sealed him inside. He must have reached across him to pull his outside shoulder to gain this advantage.
  • Matthew Judon defensive holding on Braxton Berrios. This was a strange one as it wasn't clear if Berrios was actively chipping Judon or Judon was slowing Berrios up on his route. They got a bit tangled up and the officials obviously decided Judon impeded his progress.
  • And finally, they took their sweet time over it but eventually Mac Jones was called for intentional grounding on this hilarious pass/brainwash attempt. If the ball doesn't reach the line of scrimmage, then the ball needs to be thrown at and land in the vicinity of an eligible receiver to not be ground. This did neither of those things.

Notable no-calls

Here were some of the notable missed calls, controversial moments or review situations.

  • Maye's strip and recovery were clean and the premature whistle bailed the Patriots out there. Forward progress should not be deemed to have stopped if the player is still fighting for yardage. The runner could have spun out of the tackle and fallen forward for more yards, for example.
  • Matthew Slater blatantly committed fair catch interference by essentially being practically in Braxton Berrios' lap distracting him as he caught the ball. Had he muffed this, they probably throw the flag but that's 15 yards the Jets should've had anyway. Maybe Berrios should've muffed it on purpose.
  • The officials picked up a flag after a hit by a Patriots player downfield on Carter. This may have been because the Patriots player lowered his helmet to make the hit, although the runner also lowered his helmet so that's what created the helmet-to-helmet contract.
  • On one play, a Patriots pass rusher hit Zach Wilson low. However, this could also have been holding on Alijah Vera-Tucker.
  • Finally, the officials made the correct call on when Davis appeared to fumble but it was apparent his knee was down before the ball was ripped out.

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