After Further Review: Jets-Steelers

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

Steelers 4-36 (leading to one Jets first down)

Jets 5-50 (leading to one Steelers 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

  • Alijah Vera-Tucker holding penalty. Assessed half the distance to the Jets' goal line. After a penalty-free first quarter, this occurred on the first offensive snap of the second. Vera-Tucker lost leverage and grabbed his man from behind.
  • Garrett Wilson false start. Not a great way to open the second half, but he did redeem himself with a first down catch on the very next snap.
  • Wilson with another false start. This time Allen Lazard bailed him out with a third down conversion.
  • Tyron Smith false start. Three plays after the second Wilson one.

Steelers Penalties

  • Larry Ogunjobi unnecessary roughness. Threw Breece Hall to the ground after the whistle at the end of a play where he had him wrapped up for a loss.
  • Pat Freirmuth offensive holding. Assessed two yards downfield. Grabbed Brandin Echols around the neck and took him down.
  • Ryan McCollum offensive holding. Literally tackled Quinnen Williams to prevent a sack. Dan Moore was also flagged for illegal man downfield but that was rendered moot by the hold.

Penalties warranting further discussion or explanation

Jets Penalties

  • Sauce Gardner pass interference downfield on George Pickens. This was the play where Gardner and Adams both got injured. Gardner had good positioning and was leaning on rather than grabbing his man, but was late getting his head turned again so it is difficult to refute the call.

Steelers Penalties

  • Minkah Fitzpatrick leverage on blocked extra point. They showed this about a thousand times and it was clear that he made contact with his own man (it makes no difference if it was a Jets player or one of his own). What wasn't clear was if he actively propelled himself, which seems like a semantical argument but any contact whatsoever would presumably impart some momentum. In addition, he arguably could have also been called for leaping over a lineman which has recently been banned anyway.

Notable no-calls etc

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

  • The Steelers challenged the spot on a 3rd-and-3 run that was stopped shy of the marker. The officials blew the play dead as forward progress was stopped but the whistle didn't blow until the runner was comfortably past the marker. If they determined that the forward progress was stopped before the whistle to uphold the call, that's not reviewable. Honestly this either should have been a first down or announced as not reviewable.
  • The Jets then challenged the spot when the Steelers went for it on fourth down. They got it anyway on this play where Russell Wilson just about kept his knee off the turf and did seem to get to the marker but it was too close to call. File this one under stick with the call on the field.
  • Right before Tyler Conklin's touchdown, the Jets wanted to challenge the spot on an apparent Hall touchdown run that was marked shy of the goal line and would likely have won this challenge. Jeff Ulbrich fumbled the flag, though. The old Jets would either have failed to score or had the Conklin touchdown blown dead to allow the challenge which then would have failed, so this is progress.
  • The Steelers did eventually block a Greg Zuerlein kick but it looked like they could have been flagged for their alignment or because their linemen were shoving Thomas Hennessy downwards as they got their hands up to contest the kick. The latter is a clear personal foul but the officials probably lost their bottle because the Steelers' special teams coach threw a hissy fit at the other call.
  • Despite causing an injury, the block on Xavier Newman during Beanie Bishop's interception return was clean and legal.
  • The Jets got away with a delay of game where Aaron Rodgers called for a timeout well after the clock hit zero.

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