After Further Review: Jets/Eagles Officiating Review

This season, we're 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

Eagles 9-76 (leading to one Jets first down)
Jets 9-52 (leading to three Eagles first downs)

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

Jets delay of game in punt formation.
Blake Cashman and Jordan Willis both drawn offside by a hard count on 3rd-and-10.
Holding call as Quinnen Williams is about to make a stop in the hole but Lane Johnson tackles him to the ground.
Jets delay of game from their own four-yard line.
Darren Sproles chop block on Jamal Adams, which was correct because Sproles cut him as another offensive lineman had his hands on Adams.
Jason Peters called for being illegally downfield on a pass play, seemingly a brain-fart on his part as he went three yards downfield and then came back towards his own end zone.
Leonard Williams illegal hands to the face. A clear call and a habit Williams needs to get rid of because it's not the first time he's done that this year.
Trumaine Johnson called for illegal contact on incomplete pass. This one happened off-screen and was never replayed.
False start on Lane Johnson.
Brandon Graham jumps offside.
Ryan Lewis blatant hold on Josh Bellamy as he's covering a punt.

Penalties warranting further discussion or explanation

Leonard Williams lines up in the neutral zone. Instead of 3rd-and-11 this gave the Eagles a 2nd-and-6. Just a shocking lack of focus from Williams, who just lined up in a four-point stance with his hands across the line of scrimmage.
Defensive holding on Trumaine Johnson as he gave up a nine-yard catch to Dallas Goedert on 1st-and-10. Finally, the Jets employ Johnson in press coverage and he gets called for what seemed like a harsh holding penalty on what just seems like the kind of physical cornerback play most top players get away with. Stands to reason that they finally get him to play press and it's against a bigger player he'd have been able to run with.
Blatant defensive hold on Craig James as Luke Falk throws downfield to Robby Anderson. James hugged Anderson as he ran by him and if Falk throws this one on time, it could have been a pass interference call instead.
Derek Barnett unnecessary roughness call on Falk's pick-six. This happened off-screen but you have to wonder when it happened. If it was before Nathan Gerry scored, then why wasn't the touchdown negated?
Both Demaryius Thomas and Chuma Edoga called for "illegal blindside blocks" on this play:

via GIPHY

Wut.

Okay, it's a four-yard loss, so it doesn't matter that they called these penalties, which the Eagles declined anyway, but neither of those should have constituted an illegal blindside block. Thomas angles up his man just fine - it's not his fault the defensive player throws his backside into him as he's about to make contact. And Edoga pancakes a guy with a shove right in the numbers. Blindside? Please. Maybe that could be a late hit, but the play is barely over and that's not what they called. Good to see some aggression from the kid, who otherwise struggled.

Brandon Brooks holding call on Neville Hewitt. This was one of at least three plays where Brooks picked up Hewitt at the second level and drove him 10 yards downfield. The hold was a weak call here. Hewitt eventually got off the block but Brooks let him go pretty cleanly and it was nowhere near the ball.
Thomas with a block-in-the-back penalty on a wide receiver screen. I hate these calls, although I guess it's technically correct. Thomas whiffed badly on his block on the outside and, in his effort to recover, ends up pushing the tackler in the back as the play is basically already over. Thomas should've shown more restraint there, because there was nothing to be gained.
Special teams penalty on Ty Montgomery for illegal block in the back. This was a bad call. There was a collision and the opposing player was shoved into Montgomery as he was running back towards his own end zone. Montgomery did not initiate the contact.

Notable no-calls

There weren't many obvious potential no-calls this week, but here were some of the ones that stood out:

First of all, the Eagles touchdown where they reviewed whether or not the receiver was stopped at the one was correctly upheld. The ball just broke the plane before the knee touched. Similarly, the ball had obviously broken the plane before coming loose on the first touchdown. In fact, that would have been down by contact even if it didn't break the plane.

In the first quarter, the Jets had a 2nd-and-9 but Luke Falk was hit as he threw. Vyncint Smith pounced on the loose ball which the announcers said was ruled a backwards pass, so the Jets retained possession at the point of the fumble, giving them a 3rd-and-18 and effectively killing off the drive.

Should that have been an incompletion instead though? It absolutely wasn't a backwards pass because it was released on the 33 and landed on the 35. So, unless Falk had an empty hand when he released the throw, the Jets could have challenged and gained themselves nine yards. Maybe they felt the chances of converting on 3rd-and-9 were practically zero anyway, so why bother?

Based on the broadcast footage, it looked more like an incompletion than a fumble, although it wasn't 100 percent clear with no slow-motion replay provided.

There were two plays where the Eagles seemed to get away with a hold. One on Steve McLendon on a screen pass and the other on Tarell Basham as they rushed for their first touchdown.

Finally, should Darryl Roberts have had a sack when he had a hold of Carson Wentz on a corner blitz in the first quarter but Wentz got rid of the ball as he was falling down? It appears that Wentz got the throw off before his knee hit, so unless there was an early whistle for an unusually hasty in-the-grasp call, he wasn't going to get this call.