Here’s what the officials had to say about that roughing-the-passer call on Washington’s sack of Mac Jones
"That's a sack. What else are you supposed to do?"
The Patriots caught a break on Sunday after a questionable roughing-the-passer call that left the Commanders frustrated.
Facing third-and-10 from the Commanders’ 38, New England quarterback Mac Jones was sacked by Washington defensive end KJ Henry for a nine-yard loss. Henry, however, was flagged on the play, giving the Patriots 15 yards and a first down. They scored a field goal to go up, 17-10. New England would eventually lose, 20-17, to fall to 2-7.
Jonathan Vilma, who was the color commentator for Sunday’s game on Fox, showed immediate disapproval of the call.
“I don’t see the call,” Vilma said when watching the replay. “Mac Jones has the ball in his hands and he takes him down for a sack. I don’t get it.”
When play-by-play announcer Kenny Albert said that Jones might’ve been driven to the ground, Vilma shot down that notion.
“It can’t be. He had the ball in his hands,” Vilma said. “What do you want [Henry] to do? That’s why he can’t understand it either. I would understand [the call] if Mac Jones threw the ball away and then he took him down. But he has the ball in his hands. That’s a sack. What else are you supposed to do?”
NFL on Fox rules analyst Dean Blandino also seemed confused by the call as he tried to explain it.
“This is what the officials are being directed to call,” Blandino said on the broadcast. “They want the defenders to get off to the side. But like you guys are saying, this is just a tackle. This is just momentum. There’s nothing punishing. There’s no second act. I don’t really like it as a foul, but this is what the league is directing the officials to call.”
Referee Adrian Hill was asked about the call after the game.
“I was the calling official and the call was roughing the passer due to full body weight,” he told pool reporter Nicki Jhabvala. “The ruling on the field was that the defender came down with forceable contact, chest-to-chest. He didn’t perform one of those acts to remove most of that body weight – a gator roll or a clear to the side when he was coming in. He came down directly with that force on the player, so the category was full body weight.”
Hill was then asked how Henry could have avoided the penalty in that situation.
“There are two common techniques,” Hill explained. “One we call the ‘gator roll’ where if he takes that player and rolls to the side so they both land on their side, that 90-degree rotation as he comes around. Or he comes down and breaks the fall first with hands and knees almost like in a crab-like fashion on top of the quarterback.”
The call was universally panned by analysts and former players on social media. Even former Patriots safety Devin McCourty expressed questioning over the penalty.
“Hard to play defense in the nfl but let’s go Pats,” McCourty wrote in a social media post with two laughing emojis.
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