Washington Commanders rookie defensive end K.J. Henry experienced the first action of his NFL career in Sunday’s 20-17 win over the New England Patriots.
After last week’s trades of starting DEs Montez Sweat and Chase Young, Henry was active for the first time this season and played nine snaps in the game.
During the third quarter, Henry took advantage of that playing time, sacking Mac Jones while also forcing the fumble, which defensive end Efe Obada recovered. Washington football around midfield.
Wait a minute, there’s a flag.
Unbelievably, the officials called Henry for roughing the passer. Not only did it negate his first career sack, but also took a turnover off the board and put the Patriots in field-goal range. The Patriots would kick the field goal a few plays later, and it would be their last points of the day.
Head coach Ron Rivera didn’t want to discuss it after the game, and Henry took a lighthearted approach to the penalty.
On Monday, former head of NFL officiating and now a rules analyst for FOX Sports and a contributor to The 33rd Team, Dean Blandino, weighed in and agreed: It should not have been a penalty.
Here’s the video:
“Here’s my two cents: this is not a foul.”@DeanBlandino weighs in on the state of roughing the passer penalties in today’s NFL 🎙️ pic.twitter.com/74wg27lcFm
— The 33rd Team (@The33rdTeamFB) November 6, 2023
The biggest takeaway from Blandino, in his own words:
“This is not a foul,” he said. “What K.J. Henry does is just tackle the quarterback. Because defenders, it’s really hard to get off to the side. To me, this is just a sack. I think we’ve gone too far, and I really hope the competition committee looks at these calls in the offseason and gives the officiating department and the officials some new direction.”
There you have it, folks. It was not a sack. Surprise: The NFL got it wrong. Fortunately for the Commanders, while it did cost them points, it did not cost them the game.
