Quote:Yahoo Sports
NFL can't allow blown call on Bengals-Jets helmet collision to happen
Jason Owens
Jason Owens
Sun, October 31, 2021, 8:37 PM
Officials at Sunday's New York Jets-Cincinnati Bengals game had their hearts in the right place.

Their heads? They appeared to be elsewhere.


A blatant error in the name of player safety cost the Bengals a rightful chance at a final possession in their 34-31 loss to the Jets. With 2:00 remaining, Jets quarterback Mike White looked to running back Ty Johnson in the flat on a third-and-11 play from the New York 21-yard line. The play never stood a chance.

Bengals cornerback Mike Hilton sniffed it out and tackled Johnson for a 1-yard loss. The play should have resulted in the Jets facing fourth-and-12 from the New York 20-yard line with around 1:50 remaining and the Bengals holding three timeouts — more than enough time for an offense featuring the Joe Burrow-Ja'Marr Chase connection to score a game-tying field goal or a go-ahead touchdown.

Would-be Bengals stop ends up a Jets first down

But they never got the chance. A yellow flag nullified the stop and awarded the Jets a first down. They capitalized by running out the clock to secure the upset and victory for White in his debut as an NFL starter.

Oct 31, 2021; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Mike Hilton (21) is penalized for a helmet-to-helmet hit on New York Jets running back Ty Johnson (25) in the fourth quarter during a Week 8 NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021, at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
Player safety should be paramount. So should getting calls right when brain health is at risk. (Vincent Carchietta/Reuters)
Flag was right, but wrong player was punished

The penalty? Unnecessary roughness. Hilton and Johnson made helmet-to-helmet contact on the tackle, and line judge Tripp Sutter flagged Hilton for the infraction, setting the Jets up with first down at their own 35-yard line.

Sutter was right to throw a flag. The helmet-to-helmet collision is the exact kind of brain-damage inducing violence the NFL is desperately attempting to legislate out of the game. He just penalized the wrong player.

Replay clearly shows Hilton lowering his body to attempt a legal tackle targeting Johnson's thigh pads. Johnson — at the very last moment — lowered his head, which initiated the helmet-to-helmet collision that put the health of both players at risk.

(11-01-2021, 11:44 AM)George Cantstandya Wrote: I don't recall seeing anyone say it wasn't a bad call. I might have overlooked some posts though. It seems the overall consensus is that it was a mistake.

(11-01-2021, 11:51 AM)BFritz21 Wrote: It might have just been on Facebook but people were definitely saying it

(11-01-2021, 11:49 AM)KillerGoose Wrote: Yeah, it was a pretty terrible call and came at the worst time. Made my stomach turn.

(11-01-2021, 12:41 PM)Clark W Griswold Wrote: The issue people had with your original post wasn’t about the call being wrong it was you saying that’s what cost them the game.
They should have played their best and they wouldn’t have needed that call to have a chance. I don’t even care about the call because they did so many other things wrong -  they did not play good enough to win and got their butts kicked by a bunch of scrubs…

(11-01-2021, 12:47 PM)cinci4life Wrote: I said it in another thread and i'll say it here. This needs to be reviewable to get it right. They do in College so why not here? That said it probably wouldn't be overturned considering they didn't even review the before half "TD" the Jets got that clearly wasn't.

(11-01-2021, 12:47 PM)cinci4life Wrote: I said it in another thread and i'll say it here. This needs to be reviewable to get it right. They do in College so why not here? That said it probably wouldn't be overturned considering they didn't even review the before half "TD" the Jets got that clearly wasn't.

(11-01-2021, 01:37 PM)motoarch Wrote: Whats it matter at this point?

At that stage of the game the Jets should have already been blown out.

They were better yesterday.  Let's all just move on.

(11-01-2021, 12:18 PM)BFritz21 Wrote: GMF didn’t even show the play or mention the call. Not a word.

Quote:Dumb Penalty Of The Week 

It’s customary in the NFL to ***** about officials’ calls. I don’t write about them much because who cares? Every team gets crappy calls. But there was one penalty Sunday that truly bothered me, and it should bother the NFL. Using the helmet to initiate contact, quite simply, is unfairly meted out by officials. The defensive player is the one called for the penalty far more often, even if both players lower heads to initiate contact.
The crap call happened at the Meadowlands, with two minutes left in Bengals-Jets. New York led 34-31, with a third-and-11 at the Jet 20-yard line. Mike White threw a short pass out wide to Ty Johnson, and Cincinnati corner Mike Hilton moved in for the tackle. Defenders are taught to not use their helmets to initiate contact with another player’s helmet, and Hilton, as he was supposed to do, moved in very low on Johnson, his head nowhere near Johnson’s head. At the last moment, Johnson ducked his head, and the two helmets made contact. A flag was thrown—15 yards for illegal use of the helmet on Hilton.

If the call was either not made or called on the Jets, it would have been fourth down for the Jets deep in their own territory. And assuming Cincinnati would have taken its first timeout there, it’s likely Joe Burrow would have gotten the ball back, with two timeouts, at around his own 30-yard line with 1:40 to play, needing a field goal to tie. Who knows if he gets the 40 yards to do that, but the flag on Hilton meant the Bengals never saw the ball again. Even if the officials called offsetting fouls, the Jets would have had to convert a third-and-11 to keep the ball away from Cincinnati.

“When are the officials going to start calling helmet-to-helmet on the ballcarrier?” asked former New England and Kansas City personnel czar Scott Pioli.
That’s a question the officiating department should answer this week. The vagaries of the call might have decided a game Sunday.