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
Jaguars 5-60 (leading to two Jets first downs)
Jets 6-44 (leading to two Jaguars 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
- Qwan’tez Stiggers defensive holding. This was negated anyway because Trevor Lawrence ran for a touchdown. Stiggers was leaning on and keeping contact with his man more than five yards downfield so it was either holding or illegal contact.
- Quincy Williams defensive pass interference. Totally unnecessary grab on the tight end over the middle on a rare occasion that he was actually in position in coverage.
- Deliberate delay of game in punt formation after lining up to bluff a fake. The Jaguars declined this anyway so the punter had less room to work with.
- Jordan Clark illegal contact. This was away from the ball and happened off screen.
- Austin McNamara kickoff out of bounds. This was disrupted by the ball falling off the tee twice so Nick Folk had to run on with a tee, hold it for McNamara and then run off before being involved in any return.
- Armand Membou false start. Flinched again. That’s five penalties in four games for Membou.
Jaguars Penalties
- Greg Newsome II personal foul for shoving Adonai Mitchell to the ground. There wasn’t much too this but Mitchell did seem to genuinely fall rather than just flopping to draw a flag.
- Brian Thomas personal foul for shoving Malachi Moore to the ground. Pretty much the same as above.
- Anton Harrison holding on Will McDonald. Clearly dragged him back after being beaten clean.
Penalties warranting further discussion or explanation
Jets Penalties
- Illegal block out of bounds on Tre Brown to negate the Isaiah Williams touchdown return. Initially this was called on Isaiah Davis, but Davis was never out of bounds. Brown was but the gunner was initiating most of the contact and preventing him from being able to get back in bounds so the call was still dubious.
- Khalen Saunders was ejected for making contact with an official. This seemed inadvertent, as he was engaged with an opposing player in a scuffle. Even if it was against the rules, it didn’t seem like he had any malice or intent.
Jaguars Penalties
- Illegal shift and intentional grounding on the Jaguars. The first penalty was obvious because one guy was supposed to go in motion at the snap but two did. Lawrence wrongly thought the play was over and dirted the ball, then panicked that it might be a fumble and hurt his hand trying to recover it. He did drop the ball straight down, but it didn’t look like it could be construed as a lateral. As the announcers said, grounding should not have been called because he wasn’t under pressure.
- Maason Smith taunting. Difficult to know exactly what was said or done here. The announcers suggested there was a head butt but this may just have been Smith reacting to being pushed by John Simpson.
Notable no-calls etc
Here were some of the other notable missed calls, replay situations and controversial moments:
- Isaiah Davis looked to possibly have a first down but was marked short. It was impossible from broadcast footage to see when his knee was down though.
- Bhayshul Tuten rolled into the end zone untouched on his touchdown so that was correctly called.
- Breece Hall had a run where the Jets moved the pile which seemed to continue after his initial momentum was arguably stopped and then was stopped while his momentum still looked to be going forwards.
- Andrew Beck wanted a pass interference call on Antonio Johnson, who never really got his head turned.
- Isaiah Williams did manage to keep the ball off the turf on his low catch of a tipped ball.
- A Tony Adams hit on Lawrence was obviously clean as Lawrence and Adams were both still inbounds.
- Montaric Brown’s interception never hit the ground – somehow – so that call was correct. He seemed to pin it against his body with his wrist.
- Williams scooped up another low grab on a ball which deflected off his teammate’s hands. Again, it never hit the turf.
- Travis Etienne’s second touchdown should not have counted because Harrison reached across McDonald’s chest as he leveraged his way around him so he should have been flagged for holding.
- Mitchell’s sideline catch was upheld by the replay booth who were probably right to keep the call on the field. A few years ago, that never would have been a catch because the ball moved as he hit the turf but he had it pinned on his shoulder almost the whole time, which is viewed as maintaining control. If there was a loss of control it was only for a split second and impossible to tell if he had touched out of bounds yet. If he hadn’t, it would still be a catch, but they may just have determined that either there was no loss of control or that it wasn’t clear enough to determine.
Let us know what we missed – or misinterpreted – in the comments…