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
Dolphins 5-54 (leading to one Jets first down)
Jets 6-50 (leading to one Dolphins 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
- Jeremy Ruckert illegal block in the back. Happened upfield and wasn’t visible from the broadcast footage. A costly one, because instead of having the ball near midfield, the Jets had to start from near the 25.
- Armand Membou false start on 3rd-and-4 in the red zone. Flinched.
Dolphins Penalties
- False start on Malik Washington. Flinched right before he went in motion.
- Austin Jackson false start. Dropped into his stance too early.
- Patrick Paul false start. Flinched.
- Offensive holding on Julian Hill. Grabbed Will McDonald, who beat him on an inside rush.
- Kickoff out of bounds on Riley Patterson. Possibly even deliberate to avoid the Jets’ returners but Patterson didn’t look happy so perhaps not.
Penalties warranting further discussion or explanation
Jets Penalties
- Jowon Briggs neutral zone infraction. This was originally announced as a false start on Jonah Savaiinaea before being changed with no explanation. Ironically the original call was correct as Savaiinaea reacted to Briggs flinching at the snap. Briggs never crossed into the neutral zone.
- Snap infraction on Josh Myers. This usually means there was a flinch or hesitation on the snap but there did not appear to be any. Bradley Chubb reacted early to the snap count and should have been flagged for a neutral zone infraction.
- Qwan’tez Stiggers low block. This is a relatively new rule and one which the officials never seem to get right. First of all, they announced it on Jermaine Johnson which it clearly wasn’t because he stayed upright throughout the play. The official gamebook corrected it. As for the call itself, this is designed to prevent blocks below the waist on blockers outside the tackle box. However, Stiggers braced for contact and hit the fullback shoulder to shoulder. Terrible call.
- Isaiah Oliver low block. Again, this was wrong. Oliver was actively blocked to the ground by a lineman who lunged after him and fell forwards to the ground. He was just trying to avoid a block and certainly didn’t come close to initiating any below-waist contact. Initially it looked like maybe they got the number wrong again and that perhaps it was on Jordan Clark, but an almost identical thing happened to him, so it was still wrong if that was the case. The Jets were lucky that a Miami penalty offset this one.
- Offensive holding on John Simpson. This was incorrectly announced as on Joe Tippmann and corrected in the game book. Simpson clumsily pulled his man down as he released for a screen pass.
Dolphins Penalties
- Illegal block in the back by Jaylen Waddle. This offset the Oliver low block penalty. The call itself was pretty blatant.
- Minkah Fitzpatrick defensive pass interference on deep throw from Brady Cook to Isaiah Williams. Contact here was minimal but it was before the ball arrived and Fitzpatrick never got his head turned. The ball was stripped away from Williams as he landed so he didn’t survive the ground, even if he had got two feet inbounds which he didn’t appear to do.
Notable no-calls etc
Here were some of the other notable missed calls, replay situations and controversial moments:
- The touchback when Arian Smith failed to down the ball at the goal line was a bad play by him. Had he left the ball alone, it likely wouldn’t have rolled into the end zone. However, he panicked and basically dived on it from in the end zone, which means he hadn’t established two feet in the field of play.
- Jackson got away with a hold on Johnson as he had his hand across Johnson’s chest in pass protection.
- There was a bizarre situation where Kene Nwangwu fielded the ball in the end zone but the Dolphins got credit for it bouncing in the landing zone. The explanation was that he kneeled on the goal line which is nonsense, and didn’t happen anyway. If you carry the ball across the goal line, perhaps by juggling the catch, then that can be ruled as a touchback out to the 20 on the basis it would have landed short of the goal line. This must be what the officials deemed to have happened but it didn’t appear close to being the case. Nwangwu should probably just have left it anyway. You would think if a return man carried the ball into the end zone that this would either be a safety or marked at the one-yard line but apparently that’s not the case.
- There was another kickoff where pretty much the exact same thing happened – again Nwangwu should again probably have left it – this time it was just treated as a normal kickoff and brought out to the 35.
- The Tyrel Dodson interception was correctly changed after initially being ruled incomplete. It was obvious right away that it never hit the ground.
- Micheal Clemons could have been called for roughing the passer as he had a low hit on the quarterback. This would have been a bad call because he fell as he was closing on him but we’ve seen those called on Jets players before.
- Waddle’s diving catch was ruled incomplete and the replay showed this wasn’t close to being a completion.
- The Jets got away with a clear illegal shift as Mason Taylor and Breece Hall’s timing was off. One went in motion while the other was already in motion.
- Aaron Brewer got away with a hold on Jamien Sherwood as he wrapped an arm around his inside shoulder to prevent him getting to De’Von Achane on a cutback run that went for a big gain.
- John Metchie III got to the marker on a first down catch and got a correct spot.
- Brandon Stephens would have had a defensive touchdown if the officials called Tua Tagovailoa’s incomplete pass a lateral. It really looked like it landed exactly level with where it was released from which would mean it was a touchdown. Stephens did stay in bounds and make a clean recovery.
- Isaiah Williams’ knee was down before he got to the marker on a catch which was spotted accurately.
- Ollie Gordon was never down on his touchdown but it would be so much better if the league just called helping the runner, which remains in the rulebook, or just blew plays dead when the runner’s only forward progress is clearly only coming from him being pushed.
Let us know what we missed – or misinterpreted – in the comments…