The officials didn’t see a penalty on the Jets’ game-winning touchdown in overtime on Monday night. The league’s disciplinary department did.
Jets linebacker Chazz Surratt was fined $4,833 for tripping Bills tight end Quintin Morris on Xavier Gipson’s game-winning punt return.
Former NFL referee John Parry said on the ESPN broadcast that Surratt should have been flagged. If he had been, the penalty would have wiped the touchdown off the board and moved the Jets all the way back to the 42-yard line. There’s no guarantee the Jets would have scored from there. The Bills might have won the game if the penalty had been called.
Still, it was the kind of call that easily could have gone either way, not exactly the kind of blatant, obvious missed call that tends to rile up fans. Bills fans aren’t happy about the lack of a flag on the play, but in the chaos of the dramatic final-play punt return, it’s not surprising that the officials didn’t see enough to call it back.