The Jets have gone up 15-6 with a little bit of controversy midway through the second quarter of Sunday’s game against the Steelers.
New York scored a touchdown on a 1-yard pass from Aaron Rodgers to tight end Tyler Conklin. That came a play after Jets running back Breece Hall ran it up the middle for a couple of yards. Interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich was trying to challenge that Hall made it into the end zone, but he dropped the challenge flag before throwing it onto the field — so it was late and did not get recognized. It did not matter, as the Jets scored.
Then on the extra point, Minkah Fitzpatrick leaped over the players on the line of scrimmage to block Greg Zuerlein’s attempt. But Fitzpatrick was flagged for leverage, as he touched a Jets player when going over.
However, leverage is supposed to be applied when a player uses their opponent to physically go up. It didn’t appear that’s what Fitzpatrick did, as the player is allowed to touch his opponent. Special teams coordinator Danny Smith was clearly upset with the flag call.
With the penalty, the Jets elected to go for two and got it with a completed pass from Rodgers to receiver Garrett Wilson.
The officiating decision left the Steelers in a 15-6 deficit instead of 13-6.
New York was in a position to score because Hall had taken a short pass 57 yards down to the 3-yard line. So far, he has four receptions for 93 yards to pace the offense along with 12 rushing yards on six carries.
