After Further Review: Jets-Dolphins Officiating

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

Dolphins 5-25 (leading to one Jets first down)

Jets 7-80 (leading to two Dolphins first downs)

Plays where the call was obvious, uncontroversial or not visible on broadcast footage

Jets Penalties

  • Vyncint Smith called for holding after dragging the gunner down in the open field after getting beaten one on one. The officials pointed the wrong way on this penalty.
  • Chuma Edoga false start. Surprisingly this was the first pre-snap penalty by a Jets offensive lineman all season.
  • Ryan Griffin offensive pass interference. Blatant pick play to free up Breshad Perriman for a third down conversion.
  • Illegal motion on Joe Flacco. This was on the play where Connor McGovern snapped the ball prematurely. Flacco was stepping up to change the protection so was not stationary at the snap.
  • Harvey Langi face mask penalty while in punt protection. Got his hands up in the helmet area almost immediately after the snap.
  • Avery Williamson blatant face mask penalty on Myles Gaskin's run up the middle.
  • Two penalties for one on a play where Miami picked up a first down anyway. Tarell Basham didn't get off the field and was on the wrong side of the line of scrimmage so the Jets were flagged for 12 men and also for offside.

Dolphins Penalties

  • Delay of game prior to a punt, although Miami felt the officials should have reset the play clock because they took a while to get everything set up.
  • Delay of game on 4th-and-2 as Ryan Fitzpatrick tried to bait the Jets into jumping offside.

Penalties warranting further discussion or explanation

Jets Penalties

  • Langi offside on a punt rush. He actually didn't jump offside but lined up with his hand down in the neutral zone.
  • Jordan Jenkins late hit on Fitzpatrick. You can sympathize with the Jets here are Fitzpatrick went down into a slide late at the marker but Jenkins hit him in the head/neck area after he'd gone into his slide and Williamson cleaned his clock too.
  • Joe Flacco intentional grounding on 3rd-and-1. Was still in the tackle box and the pass never got to the line of scrimmage with no receivers in the area.

Dolphins Penalties

  • Illegal contact on Andrew Van Ginkel who shoved Jamison Crowder more than five yards downfield before Joe Flacco vacated the pocket. Van Ginkel should have moved his feet so that he could disrupt Crowder's route without initiating contact.
  • False start on Solomon Kindley. Kindley didn't seem to like this call, perhaps because he and Robert Hunt both reacted to Basham almost getting drawn offside. However, Basham didn't flinch deliberately to force that reaction and never crossed into the neutral zone.
  • Illegal formation because the gunner, Jamal Perry, wasn't on the line of scrimmage at the snap. What's interesting about this is not only was Perry also not on the line as they had lined up on the play before and been hit with a delay of game penalty, but that Pierre Desir seemed to be appealing for this penalty at the time and Perry still didn't make the correction.

Notable no-calls

The Jets arguably got lucky on a few plays where they could have been penalized by a fussier crew. Quinnen Williams could have been called for yet another personal foul when he hit Fitzpatrick in the helmet at the end of the play where Bryce Huff recorded a sack and Marcus Maye's spectacular interception came after he made a lot of contact and grabbed the jersey of the receiver at the catch-point. Ryan Griffin also got away with a blatant hold in pass protection.

However, Miami benefited from a few calls too. There was a blatant block in the back on Jakeem Grant's long punt return and they got a favorable spot on their final first down to preserve the shutout.

There were no replay reviews, other than on the Maye interception which clearly never hit the ground and the replay also clearly showed that Maye was down before he attempted to run it back.

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