Jets’ late touchdown vs. Patriots overruled after questionable call by referees

Jets fans are going to be talking about this one all week.

In the middle of the fourth quarter, it appeared that tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins had a touchdown that would have trimmed the Patriots’ lead to three at 24-21. Instead, the play was ruled a fumble out of the end zone.

The play was initially ruled a touchdown on the field. Upon further review, officials decided that there was enough evidence to rule it a fumble and a touchback.

“He lost the ball. It came out of his control as he was almost to the ground,”Tony Corrente, the game referee, said after the game. “He re-grasps the ball and by rule, now he has to complete the process of a recovery which means he has to survive the ground again ... and the ball came out a second time. He didn’t survive the recovery and didn’t survive the ground during the recovery.

“It was a pretty quick determination. It was pretty obvious.”

After the game, two former NFL vice presidents of officiating, Mike Pereira and Dean Blandino also weighed in.

Is it the right call? I mean, you can clearly see movement as Seferian-Jenkins is going to the ground, but it also appears that he re-secures the ball before going to the ground.

However, he must do that in bounds.

Based on that assessment, it appears that referees technically made the right call. Though based on that look, it’s hard to say that it’s indisputable. Jets players certainly weren’t happy with the result.

But head coach Todd Bowles had a different take.

“We had other plays in the game that we could have made to make up for that,” he told the media. “I’m not gonna blame this game on one play.”

It just stinks that it was that close.

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