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Late in the first half of the Kansas City Chiefs’ 30-29 win over the division-rival Las Vegas Raiders in Week 5, Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones made what appeared to be one of the game’s biggest plays.
On a 3rd-and-8 play from Las Vegas’ 46-yard line, Raiders quarterback Derek Carr dropped back to pass but was sacked by Jones, who came up with the football after taking Carr down. However, the result of the play was a roughing-the passer-penalty on Jones, which gave the Raiders an automatic first down.
The penalty on Jones drew reactions from many watching the game, as Jones appeared to put his hand down on the ground before landing on Carr to take some of his weight off of Las Vegas’ QB before he hit the ground. On top of that, Jones appeared to have possession of the football before Carr hit the ground, which presumably meant Carr was no longer a passer before the flag was thrown.
After the game, the head referee of the Chiefs-Raiders game, Carl Cheffers, defended the call against Jones via a pool report.
“The quarterback is in the pocket and he’s in a passing posture,” Scheffers said, via Raider Maven. “He gets full protection of all the aspects of what we give the quarterback in a passing posture. So, when he was tackled, my ruling was the defender landed on him with full body weight. The quarterback is protected from being tackled with full body weight. My ruling was roughing the passer for that reason.”
Cheffers also explained why Jones was flagged despite having possession of the football.
“No, because (Carr) still gets passing protection until he can defend himself. So, with him being in a passing posture and actually attempting to make a pass, he’s going to get full protection until the time when he actually can protect himself. The fact that the ball came out and was subsequently recovered by the defense is not relevant as far as the protection the quarterback gets.”
NFL Makes Ruling on Fine for Chris Jones
On Saturday, October 15, the NFL administered fines for players’ actions in Week 5 and opted not to fine Jones for his roughing-the-passer penalty.
“#Chiefs DL Chris Jones also wasn’t fined for the hit on #Raiders QB Derek Carr that drew a controversial roughing the passer penalty Monday night, negating Jones’ strip-sack-recovery,” NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero wrote.
Twitter Reacts to Jones Not Being Fined
Twitter users reacted to Jones not being fined for his Week 5 roughing-the-passer penalty.
“Of course he didn’t get fined, the NFL knew he did nothing wrong! That’s why they didn’t fine him! But now they need to fix it and stop letting these rouge refs have so much outcome in games. It literally looked like they bet the house on the “Faders” in the first half!” one Twitter user wrote.
“Dont worry, refs made up for it by calling a defensive holding call on a missed field goal attempt, one which i have never seen called before. they also refuse to call an offensive holding call on olineman when Crosby is in a headlock every play,” another user wrote.
“If he had gotten fined for that I’m telling you right now the nfl was gonna have a Kansas City problem. Like seriously,” another user wrote.
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