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Commanders’ KJ Henry hit with questionable roughing the passer flag on Mac Jones sack

Originally posted on 5 GOATs | By Alex Weber | Last updated 11/5/23

The New England Patriots just caught a major break thanks to a very questionable penalty, while the Washington Commanders were left frustrated after a near-turnover.

On third down and ten from the Washington’s 38-yard line, Patriots QB Mac Jones dropped back and was strip-sacked by Commanders pass rusher KJ Henry as Washington recovered what would have been a momentum-changing fumble. Instead, Henry was flagged for a roughing the passer call that left NFL fans speechless.

Here was the very light roughing call on Henry:

This was flagged for roughing the passer pic.twitter.com/T7d76u5vgJ
— Ben Brown (@BenBrownPL) November 5, 2023

Although Henry did force a fumble, upon further inspection of that replay, it does seem that Mac Jones got his elbow and knee down before the ball popped out and was recovered by Washington. Still, even a sack on that third down would have forced a much longer field goal try — or possibly even a punt.

Instead, New England was rewarded a new set of downs for that glancing takedown of Jones that really didn’t seem to violate the current roughing the passer criteria. The Pats were forced into a fourth down on that next set of downs, however, they got to kick a field goal from 23 yards closer to the goal posts than they would have had they taken the sack.

All the way back at the 47 of Washington, that’s a field goal try from 65ish yards and Bill Belichick is likely punting that one away. So, New England was essentially rewarded three points there on a sketchy roughing the passer call.

This article first appeared on 5 GOATs and was syndicated with permission.

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