After Further Review: Jets-Cardinals

by Site Admin

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

Cardinals 5-58 (leading to two Jets first downs)

Jets 3-25 (leading to two Cardinals 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

  • Javon Kinlaw offside. Jumped early, giving the Cardinals a free play.
  • Kinlaw offside again on Arizona's first touchdown.
  • Defensive holding on Quincy Williams. Reached across the receiver with a handful of jersey.

Cardinals Penalties

  • Offensive holding on Trey McBride. Lost leverage on Quincy Williams in space and grabbed him from behind.
  • Delay of game.

Penalties warranting further discussion or explanation

Jets Penalties

  • DJ Reed pass interference in the end zone. Was in a great position and contact was minimal but never got his head turned round even though he had plenty of time to do so.
  • Sauce Gardner illegal use of the hands. This was announced as on number 21 but corrected in the official record. He did make contact with his man's helmet but there wasn't a grab or much of a shove so this call was a little soft.
  • Illegal man downfield on John Simpson to negate a 20-yard screen pass to Tyler Conklin. Even though Aaron Rodgers got this out quickly, Simpson was two yards downfield on the release as he fired off the line and kind of stumbled forwards with nobody in front of him to block.

Cardinals Penalties

  • Sean Murphy-Bunting pass interference on Garrett Wilson. Clearly grabbed Wilson. There was a question that this might have been uncatchable but the grab prevented Wilson from making a play on a ball that was otherwise within his reach.
  • Garrett Williams pass interference to negate an interception. A clear shove down on Xavier Gipson before the ball arrived.
  • Fair catch interference on Joey Blount. While Blount never made contact with Gipson, he basically shouted in his face to distract him, which is also illegal and could equally have been flagged as unsportsmanlike conduct.

Notable no-calls etc

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

  • James Conner was originally ruled to have scored a touchdown on the first drive but replay assistance correctly ruled him down at the one-yard line. There was also a question as to whether he stepped out of bounds further upfield but he did not;
  • Jalen Mills ripped the ball loose at the end of a play but the ball carrier's forward progress was ruled to have been stopped;
  • Quincy Williams' hit on Kyler Murray was violent but clean;
  • The Jets were unable to challenge a play where they recovered a loose ball because the officials blew dead because there was no legal snap. Two Jets jumped into the neutral zone as the center started the snap motion rather than before that so it was debatable as to whether there should have been a penalty. This either should have been a defensive offsides call or an Arizona turnover;
  • Breece Hall seemed to get an unfavorable spot on a play where he looked to have got to the marker;
  • Mills punched the ball loose from Marvin Harrison but the officials deemed that forward progress had been stopped. Whether this was before or after the whistle was actually irrelevant if Harrison was indeed moving backwards by the time he lost the ball. Again, this was debatable, though;
  • There was a blatant pass interference that should have been called on the Cardinals late in the game that wasn't called, but by then it barely mattered.

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