Preseason games don’t matter, but visits from league officials do.
Especially when new rules are being discussed. The Patriots will pay more attention next time. They left MetLife Stadium losers Sunday in part because of a new rule with which they weren’t familiar enough.
With 7:11 left in overtime, Jets kicker Nick Folk attempted a 56-yard field goal. It sailed wide left, seemingly setting up the Patriots with perfect field position to further pad their AFC East lead.
Except, there was a flag on the field and soon Chris Jones would realize why. The Patriots rookie defensive tackle was called for unsportsmanlike conduct, a 15-yard penalty for pushing teammate Will Svitek forward in an attempt to block the kick, breaking a new rule that prohibits such an action.
“Just trying to get that extra [push] in the middle to get up there,” he said. “I was confused at first. I didn’t know what was going on. I figured out what it was, and I like, ‘Oh, that’s my fault.’ ”
Three players later, Folk drilled a 42-yard try, sending the Jets to a dramatic 30-27 overtime victory and fitting Jones for goat horns.
A sixth-round pick out of Bowling Green, Jones was picked up by the Patriots off waivers Sept. 11 after stints with the Texans, who drafted him, and Buccaneers. He said during training camp the new rule was discussed, but it slipped his mind during the game-turning play. It was adopted this year as Rule 9, Section 1, Article 3, subsection (b)(2), and states the defensive team on a kick from scrimmage “cannot push teammates on the line of scrimmage into the offensive formation.” It was the first time the penalty was enforced this year.
“I made that mistake and I should’ve been more aware,” said Jones, a force otherwise with 10 tackles, three for losses, and two sacks. “It was just something I decided to do. I was trying to block the field goal.”
Patriots coach Bill Belichick didn’t even have a firm grasp on the rule, saying he disagreed with the call because, “We weren’t on the second level when they pushed him, no.”
What level the pushing takes place doesn’t factor into the penalty, however. Jones took ownership of his costly mistake.
“I put it on my shoulders,” he said. “It was all my fault. It was no one else.”
In an interview with a pool reporter, referee Jerome Boger said the unsportsmanlike penalty was called on Jones for pushing his teammate into the formation. The rule, Boger said, is any kind of push, “any type of pushing action.”
“The umpire’s flag went up almost instantaneously as he observed the action,” Boger said. “We just enforced it as he called it.”
The call will certainly bring extra attention to the rule. Patriots defensive lineman Rob Ninkovich was under the impression it negated linebackers from pushing linemen into the line, but was unaware linemen couldn’t push other linemen.
“If two guys are together, one gets knocked over, both pushing, it’s not like controlled in there,” he said. “It’s very chaotic.”
He didn’t like the flag, obviously.
“It’s a tough call to make, tough call to live with, but that’s the way football is,” Ninkovich said. “You battle, he missed the field goal on top of that, they move [them] up [15] yards, but what can we do? We play hard, whatever they call, you live with. You get held, you get scratched, there’s calls that you don’t get and calls that you do. You got to go out there and play hard.”
“Whatever happens, happens. You hope they make the correct decisions.”