Patriots: Why did refs not call egregious late hit on Mac Jones?
By Jerry Trotta
The fact the New England Patriots defeated the Los Angeles Chargers without a big day from their passing game is really impressive.
That speaks to the performance from the defense, which limited Justin Herbert, an early-season MVP candidate, to a 51.4% completion percentage, 223 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
Mac Jones’ stat line was almost identical to Herbert’s. The rookie QB also completed 51.4% of his passes for 218 yards.
He didn’t throw any touchdowns, but didn’t turn the ball over, which proved to be the difference.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the game, though? Jones was only sacked once and hit just two times. If you recall how many big hits Jones has taken this year, that’s a massive improvement for the offensive line.
Unfortunately, the Patriots’ OL could do nothing to prevent this dirty hit on Jones in the second quarter. As the video shows, the hit comes in well after the play was blown dead … and the refs didn’t throw their flags.
Mac Jones gets destroyed after a dead ball whistle pic.twitter.com/GL8OgLVVzd
— MattHasTweets (@MattHasTweets_) October 31, 2021
Why did the refs not penalize this late hit on Patriots QB Mac Jones?
In an era (or year) where quarterback safety has been emphasized more than ever, how does this get glossed over? We’re not saying Jones got molly-whopped, but a late hit is a late hit and Jerry Tillery clearly had one thing on his mind: get the Patriots quarterback on the ground by any means necessary.
Regardless of your feelings on some of the unnecessary roughness and roughing the passer penalties that are being made around the NFL, this hit was no doubt dirty.
It’s one thing to play through the whistle. When you start talking about hitting a quarterback seconds after a whistle is blown, you’ve crossed a line, and New England’s offensive line was fully justified to get in Tillery’s face.
If you look closely, Tillery kneeled over Jones for a split-second, too, so the refs easily could’ve thrown a taunting penalty in there for good measure. Instead, they did nothing, which doesn’t come close to aligning with what we’ve seen this season when quarterbacks have ended up on their backside.
Here's a look at just how late Jerry Tillery was on the play. They blew the whistle INSTANTLY after the snap. And one official came running in to stop the play. pic.twitter.com/mcuwOc6Ig0
— Henry McKenna (@McKennAnalysis) October 31, 2021
All we’re asking for is a little bit of consistency.
If refs are going to change the outcome of drives (and sometimes games) by penalizing defenders for the slightest of hits to a QB, the least they could’ve done here is flag Tillery for his late and hard hit on a player who was standing there after the whistles stopped the action.
The Chargers DL heard the whistle. Ted Karass (his blocker) and literally every other player on the field stopped playing.
Almost nothing about NFL officiating surprises us at this point, but this non-call was especially shocking given the league-wide crackdown in regard to protecting quarterbacks. Somehow, this didn’t meet the criteria.
