After Further Review: Jets-Buffalo Officiating

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

Bills 5-35 (leading to zero Jets first downs)
Jets 7-61 (leading to three Bills 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

  • Corey Davis false start. Flinched before the snap.
  • Nate Herbig false start. Out of his stance before the snap.
  • Thomas Hennessy holding on a punt. Seemed pretty clear as he tackled Tyler Matakevich on an interior rush.
  • Defensive holding on Deuce Carter. Grabbed Isaiah McKenzie at the top of his route. Perhaps didn't need to, but the call was clear.
  • CJ Uzomah offensive holding. Matt Milano gained the outside leverage advantage and Uzomah dragged him down.

Bills Penalties

  • Illegal man downfield on Mitch Morse. Obvious call as this was a designed screen but pressure threw the timing off so Morse was 2-3 yards past the line of scimmage when Josh Allen dirted the ball.
  • False start on Dion Dawkins. Came out of his stance early.
  • Offensive holding on Roger Saffold. Took down Quinnen Williams at the point of attack when Allen tried to step up and run. The Jets declined this anyway.
  • Dawkins holding. Dragged down Lawson on a play where Sheldon Rankins ended up getting a sack anyway.
  • Saffold false start. Came out of his stance early.

Penalties warranting further discussion or explanation

Jets Penalties

  • Defensive holding on Carter again. This was a bit soft although he had his hands on Khalil Shakir running down the seam.
  • Offside on CJ Mosley. This was the fourth down play where Dawson Knox motioned under center and Mosley jumped over the top on the hard count. There was one interesting element to this call and that's the possibility of a false start on Knox for doing a head-bob as he made the hard count. The line judge appeared to be indicating that the penalty should be against the Bills after he threw the flag and there was a lengthy discussion before the call was eventually confirmed as on Mosley.

Bills Penalties

  • Holding on Dawkins. Dawkins held Lawson coming off one edge, while Spencer Brown had an even clearer hold on Bryce Huff coming off the other edge. The Brown hold wasn't called but the Dawkins penalty negated an Allen first down scramble.
  • Holding on Dawkins again. This one looked harsh as he let Curry's momentum take him out of the play on the inside and threw him down. It didn't look like there was much of a grab here.
  • Defensive holding on Dane Jackson. This was declined anyway because the Jets picked up a first down, and wasn't clear from the broadcast footage. Denzel Mims ended up on the floor but it looked like he might have just tripped and Jackson reached out but didn't appear to get a grab on him.

Notable no-calls etc

While the Bills' offensive line was called for seven penalties, including four on Dawkins, it was a familiar pattern online that everyone was talking about how many offensive holding calls the Bills were getting away with, including Damien Woody, who has since deleted that tweet.

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

  • Bills fans wanted a flag on Sauce Gardner's early pass break-up but it looks like his timing was perfect. They got away with a blatant hold on Lawson on that play anyway.
  • The play where Braxton Berrios let the ball bounce and then chased after the ball had some people wondering if he thought the ball touched him and was concerned about a turnover. However, it was actually a situation where the Bills touched it first. Once that happens, Berrios knows that he has nothing to lose by trying to get the ball and advance it because it will be a dead ball even if he muffs it. He was likely just trying to catch the Bills sleeping there.
  • The Bills wanted a roughing the kicker penalty after their punter was knocked over. However, Jamien Sherwood shoved his blocker into the punter which doesn't constitute roughing.
  • Roughing the passer could have been called on at least three of the Bills hits on Mike White. Remember the Jets had a pick-six overturned because John Franklin-Myers "hit the quarterback too hard". There was no launching, or landing with body weight on the quarterback on any of the hits that injured White?
  • Jordan Poyer had a late hit on Garrett Wilson at the end of a play that went uncalled.
  • The booth buzzed down and changed an incompletion to a 7-yard catch on a play where Gabe Davis obviously dragged his back foot so that was correct.
  • Brandin Echols was held on Nyheim Hines' long punt return.
  • Lawson was originally called for a late hit but they picked up the flag. This was a good no-call. Lawson was already falling towards the ball carrier when he went down and made a concerted effort to avoid landing with his full weight on that player.
  • The Bills challenged a rolling catch by Wilson but nothing in this play indicated the ball ever hit the ground.

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