‘B.S. call’ sinks Jets
CBS game analyst Dan Fouts best summed up the feelings of many New York Jets players and probably all of their fans on Sunday: “(That was) one of the worst calls I’ve ever seen,” Fouts said on air.
This, as the Jets were attempting a fourth-quarter comeback against the New England Patriots, in a game to determine the mid-October AFC East leader.
After blowing an early 14-0 lead and trailing 24-14 with 8:31 left, the Jets appeared to score a touchdown when tight end Austin Sefarian-Jenkins caught a pass from
Josh McCown and dove into a crowd of Patriots defenders and over the front-left pylon. The sideline official on the spot ruled touchdown. But minutes later, referee
Tony Corrente announced not only that Sefarian-Jenkins did not score, but that he fumbled before either crossing the goal line or going out of bounds. And because the loose ball in the tight end’s bread-basket went out of bounds in the end zone … Touchback. New England’s ball at the 20.
The Patriots hung on to win 24-17 to improve to 4-2. The Jets fell to 3-3.
In an interview with a pool reporter afterward, referee Corrente explained the drastic overturn like this:
“The final (replay angle) that we saw was from the end zone that showed (Sefarian-Jenkins) with the football, starting to go to the ground. He lost the ball. It came out of his control as he was almost to the ground … He lost the ball short of the goal line.
“Now, he re-grasps the ball and by rule, now he has to complete the process of a recovery which means he has to survive the ground again. So in recovering it, he recovered, hit the knee, started to roll and the ball came out a second time. So the ball started to move in his hands this way … he’s now out of bounds in the end zone, which now created a touchback.
“So he didn’t survive the recovery and didn’t survive the ground during the recovery is what happened here.” The NFL’s chief of officiating,
Al Riveron, and his assistants at the league’s central-replay command in Manhattan, make all final calls on reviews, not the on-field referee. That’s a new rule this season. The overturn had nothing to do with the catch, Corrente added. Sefarian-Jenkins had become a runner by then. Jets fans at MetLife Stadium went nuts, of course. So did many Jets players.
“I thought it was a B.S. call,” receiver Jermaine Kearse said.
For his part, Sefarian-Jenkins was calm afterward in accepting ultimate blame.
“I feel like I scored. But at the end of the day, that’s what the ref called,” he said. “(Coaches) were harping on ball security and that was a great time for me to have great ball security. I let my team down in that situation.”
Jets head coach Todd Bowles said: “From my angle on replay, I didn’t see the ball fumbled. I saw it bobbled and I saw him gain control of it. It’s not demoralizing. It’s frustrating, but I’m not going to blame this game on one play.”
The Pats were unapologetic. Cornerback Malcolm Butler was credited with the forced fumble on the controversial play.
“When Malcolm came off the field, the first thing he told me was the ball was out,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said.