After Further Review: Jets-Patriots

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 5-57 (leading to two Jets first downs - officially, although it was actually only one)
Jets 5-35 (leading to one Patriots first down)

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

Qwan'tez Stiggers out of bounds on a punt. By the time Stiggers was visible on-screen in the TV footage, he had already got himself back inbounds, but from the way they announced it, the suggestion was that he went out of bounds without being pushed. This was initially called on Malachi Moore, but the official record was corrected.
Olu Fashanu false start. Dropped back into his stance a beat before the ball was snapped.
David Bailey neutral zone infraction. This was a bad mistake by Bailey because New England clearly weren't going to snap the ball and he bit on a hard count two seconds before the end of the third quarter. He was in the neutral zone when the Patriots moved, so the penalty was correct.

Patriots Penalties

Hunter Henry offensive holding to negate a seven-yard run. Bailey drew this one as a run was bounced outside and Henry held on a beat too long as Bailey had naturally gained the outside leverage advantage. Henry looked absolutely stunned that they would call this on him, but it's a play you see all the time. Of course, Henry was perhaps upset that the officials would dare call any penalty on them, and with good reason, because one week after the most penalized team in the NFL took almost 30 minutes to get flagged for anything against the Jets, the team most renowned for cheating took OVER 30 minutes to get flagged with the call coming at 13:32 of the third quarter.
Namdi Obiazor holding on a kickoff return. This looked pretty clear as he essentially dragged Andrew Beck away from being able to potentially make a tackle.
Deliberate delay of game after being unable to get the Jets to jump offside before the game-clinching field goal.

Plays that require further discussion

Jets Penalties

Tim Patrick offensive pass interference to negate the opening touchdown for Omar Cooper. This was one of those letter-of-the-law plays that the officials can justify calling while handwaving away the fact that most of the time this sort of thing would be ignored. Patrick saw that Smith had escaped the pocket and had room to run and locked onto his man while gesturing for Smith to run it. On 3rd-and-10 from the 14, Smith would have had a good chance to pick up the first down and possible even score, especially with Patrick controlling his man easily. This was nowhere near the area where Cooper caught the pass a few seconds later but the defender being blocked by Patrick could feasibly say he might have dropped into that area but couldn't because Patrick was blocking him off from doing so. Obviously he wouldn't because doing so would leave Patrick open instead but that's essentially what Patrick is being penalized for.
Bailey roughing the passer to tack 10 yards onto an 11-yard pass play. This call may have seemed harsh because it wasn't a big hit but when you come in a step late and you actively shove the quarterback when you could have instead not shoved him, you don't have much of an argument. Unless you do it to a Jets' quarterback, of course.

Patriots Penalties

Dre'Mont Jones offside and roughing the passer on the same play to add 15 yards onto a nine-yard Garrett Wilson catch. Jones didn't jump offside; he lined up with his foot in the neutral zone. As for the hit, he came in low. He was stumbling into the hit, but could easily have pulled out from the low contact, which could easily have seriously injured Smith.
Kevin Byard defensive pass interference on Tim Patrick. An obvious call here as he shoved Patrick in the back, knocking him to the ground before the ball arrived, and although the Patriots felt it was uncatchable, that doesn't seem to be a thing these days. The most significant thing about this play though is that it was the first time the Jets had been given a first down via penalty since early in the fourth quarter of week three (when DJ Reed committed a pass interference penalty on Wilson). That's almost 13 quarters ago. And, in the same span, Jets opponents had been given 13 first downs by the officiating crews. Some of these things underline how the Jets just haven't been getting their fair share of calls.

Notable no-calls etc

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

It’s worth mentioning the consistent use of the automatic measurement system, which seems like a complete waste of time, because it doesn’t really save any time and still relies on the ball being accurately spotted. Coaches seem less compelled to challenge the spot as a result, and the suspicion is that the replay booth might not change the spot as often. Isaiah Davis was marked short on one such play where it looked like he might have had the first down and Rhamondre Stevenson had one play measured that wasn’t even close.
The Jets challenged AJ Brown’s catch, which was overturned even though the announcers felt it was a catch. The ball bounced up after Brown initially controlled the ball but then went to ground but if it never hit the ground then it should have been a catch. While it looked like maybe he kept his hands under it, the Jets presumably felt it hit the turf at some point and the officials must have found evidence of that. He definitely didn’t have control at the point when it would have hit the turf so even the slightest touch would correctly negate the catch.
The Jets felt that Brown pushed off on one play, although this seemed to be normal hand fighting.
Geno Smith’s quarterback sneak was also ruled short, and it was too difficult to see where the ball was to change the spot.
Drake Maye was about to be sacked and flung the ball sideways for an incomplete pass. This definitely landed ahead of where he released it so was not a lateral/fumble. This wasn’t intentional grounding, although he obviously grounded the ball intentionally, because it was in the general direction of an eligible receiver.
Smith also had a play where he threw it at Braelon Allen’s feet to avoid a sack, so perhaps the Jets can’t complain too hard about the Maye no-call, although there was a clear difference between how clearly this was thrown towards that player.
New England got away with some illegal contact, including one in the end zone.
TreVeyon Henderson wasn’t down by contact on his fumble, although they reviewed it in detail because one angle appeared to show that his hip might have hit the ground before it came loose. However, it was clearly loose before the hip hit the turf.
Maye was tackled and fell forwards and then another Jets player landed on him a beat later, so it seemed likely a flag would be thrown. The “hit” was very soft and a no-call was the right call here, albeit not one the Jets usually seem to be on the right end of.
When Isaiah Williams made a short-yardage conversion on a jet sweep, Robert Spillane got hold of his face mask and could have had a 15-yard penalty.
Not much was made of it but Christian Barmore had a quarterback hit on Smith where the crown of his helmet contacted the front of Smith’s face mask. This perhaps wasn’t forcible in the literal sense of the word, but had the same level of force as any normal hit and you often see this called.

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