The New York Jets were on the wrong end of a crucial replay reversal in Sunday’s loss to the New England Patriots, and it is no surprise that many of their players are furious over it.
Tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins appeared to power his way into the end zone after catching a pass midway through the fourth quarter, and the score would have cut the Patriots lead to 24-20 and 24-21 after the extra point. Instead, officials ruled that Seferian-Jenkins fumbled the ball before breaking the plane and did not regain possession until he was out of bounds, resulting in a turnover and a touchback.
Jets TD reversed to a touchback after this is ruled a fumble out of the end zone. What a weird play pic.twitter.com/6nyHgbNCq3
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) October 15, 2017
Following the game, which the Jets ended up losing 24-17, players said they were baffled that the touchdown was overturned.
“I mean, I’ve never seen somebody get called for a fumble when they’re still holding on to the ball,” Jets cornerback Buster Skrine told reporters, via SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano. “I don’t know how somebody can fumble if the ball is still in their hand.”
Wide receiver Jermaine Kerse was even more animated.
“I thought it was a B.S. call,” he said. “I’m pretty sure everybody is going to look back and say it’s a B.S. call.”
Cornerback Morris Claiborne expressed thoughts that were shared by many fans and analysts who saw the play.
“For most of us, the last thing on our mind was a touchback,” Claiborne said. “I thought at least it would be down on the 1 or something like that, we’d still have the ball and still have a chance to score a touchdown.
“But to hear ‘Touchback’? It was the furthest thing from my mind. And me personally, I still don’t understand where ‘touchback’ came from. It looked like he got up with the ball to me. It didn’t look like the ball went through the back of the end zone at all.”
Referee Tony Corrente tried to clarify the ruling while speaking with the pool reporter.
“He lost the ball. It came out of his control as he was almost to the ground,” he said. “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.
“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.”
You can understand how the officials came to the conclusion that they did, though the rule will likely be examined this offseason. If a player fumbled the ball while going out of bounds and didn’t regain possession until his body was out, that would technically be a fumble. The offense would keep the ball, but fumbles that go out of the end zone are different.
One player who did not complain about the call was Seferian-Jenkins. To his credit, he took full responsibility for the play.
