The Jets are still trying to figure out what exactly happened on one penalty called against them last week.
Early in the second quarter, they had a fourth-and-4 at the Jaguars 39, and it felt like they had some momentum.
It appeared quarterback Aaron Rodgers had drawn the Jaguars offsides with his cadence, but the officials ruled center Joe Tippmann committed a “snap infraction” and called a false start on him.
Instead of going for it on fourth-and-4, the Jets punted on fourth-and-9.
Tippmann asked the referee what he did wrong, but he still seemed befuddled by it this week.
“He didn’t [have an explanation],” Tippmann said. “I went up and asked and he just said, ‘snap infraction.’ I don’t know. I think it had something to do with the movement of my hips.”
Tippmann looked between his legs at Rodgers on the play, then looked up, then he looked again at Rodgers before looking up again before the snap.
The officials may have felt that Tippmann was moving his head and body in a way to draw the Jaguars offsides but the movement looked typical.
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“What they said to me before is the first [move] has to be the same as the second [move],” Tippmann said. “I thought I did a pretty good job of that. They got me. There’s not much I can do about it. After that, you could probably see I was coming up real slow.”
Tippmann’s snaps were a huge story in training camp when he was struggling, but the second-year Jet has had a good season.
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“He’s just taking that next step,” interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said. “A young player, especially at that position, that’s hard. It’s like middle linebacker, quarterback, there’s some positions out there that are high-level mental processing and problem solving, and center is definitely one of those — especially when the guy behind you is No. 8, and he’s got a database of protections and language that is just off the charts.
“So as good as he is, you have to be just as good, so obviously that’s a learning process and there’s a lot of growth that had to occur, but I definitely feel like the back half of the season he’s hit his stride, and he’s got a great future ahead of him.”
The Jets elevated DT Bruce Hector and S Jarius Monroe from the practice squad for Sunday’s game. DT Leki Fotu was downgraded to out and remains on IR.
