The New England Patriots and the New York Jets rivalry has long had gamesmanship involved and once Rex Ryan took over the Jets it continued on an even higher level and that appears to be what happened on Sunday, as the Pats were flagged on a missed field goal that allowed to the Jets to tie the game and send it to overtime, where they eventually won the game.
According to ESPN New York, sources told the website that the Jets may have "tipped" off officials in the game about the Patriots use of the push move and clearly it worked, as the referees called the penalty on the Nick Folk 56-yard field goal that missed, giving the team another shot to tie the game, basically giving the Jets another chance despite the violation. The one-up manship of the two teams has been going on for years, with Eric Mangini, Belichick taking and then leaving the Jets job and of course the Spygate controversy.
Tony Michalek threw the flag on the play and while Ryan did not admit to telling officials about the Patriots use of the play, the ESPN report says that somebody made sure the referees knew what was up. The push penalty was added recently and had not been called before in a game and while the Pats did not whine about it afterwards, it was a penalty that the players called for an ultimately got added to the rule book.
The video shows that the Patriots clearly did it on the play and the Jets said they may have noticed it the week before when they did it against the Saints. Funny enough, someone pointed out on a field goal by the Patriots that the Jets did the exact same thing and no penalty was called, so there could be some beef there, but the Patriots at least still have the division lead and now the two have split the season series with each other in the AFC East.
While it may have been a terrible call in the context of the moment, it was by the letter of the rules: Rule 9, Section 1, Article 3, (b), states: "Team B players cannot push teammates on the line of scrimmage into the offensive formation."
