Washington Commanders rookie defensive end KJ Henry appeared to have the first sack of his young NFL career Sunday against the New England Patriots. However, the sack got negated by a highly questionable roughing the passer penalty.
In the third quarter, Henry came off the edge and sacked Patriots quarterback Mac Jones from his blindside.
The sack looked clean, except officials ruled Henry used his full body weight on Jones.
FOX Sports rules analyst Dean Blandino admitted he didn’t like the call during the game’s broadcast, “this is just a tackle, this is just momentum, there’s nothing punishing.”
NFL Twitter reacted with the same disgust of the penalty.
After the Commanders’ 20-17 win, Referee Adrian Hill, who called the penalty, explained why Henry got penalized for the tackle, per Nicki Jhabvala of The Washington Post.
“The ruling on the field was that the defender came down with forcible 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.”
A gator roll, as Hill later explained, is when a defender rolls a quarterback to the side so that both players land on their side. Hill added Henry could have also broken the fall with his hands and knees in a crab-like fashion on top of the quarterback.
The explanation by Hill was more baffling than the penalty itself. Henry got penalized for making a football move. Since the NFL’s emphasis on player safety, particularly the quarterback, roughing the passer has been one of the most controversial penalties in the league.
The goalpost seemingly moves with every questionable penalty. Henry’s sack didn’t appear to be forcible. Officials expect Henry to defy physics to roll Jones through or softly bring him down by breaking their fall.
Instead of a third-down sack, the Patriots’ drive continued and resulted in a field goal that extended New England’s lead to 17-10. Fortunately for Washington, the team overcame the deficit to win.
