Aaron Rodgers speaks out about controversial penalty calls in Jets-Bills game

There were plenty of penalty flags thrown in Monday night’s Bills vs. Jets game, with some benefiting Aaron Rodgers and the Jets and others proving to be costly.

Rodgers was asked about the officiating during his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday.

Rodgers spoke at first about two roughing the passer calls — with one going against the Jets and the other going against the Bills.

During the third quarter of Monday’s game, Bills defender A.J. Epenesa was flagged for unnecessary roughness on third down after it appeared that he had sacked Rodgers, forcing a punt. Instead, the Jets went on to make a field goal on the drive and tie the game at 20.

“As a throwback player, that’s not a call that I want on Epenesa there,” Aaron Rodgers said. “Like it wasn’t an egregious sack. It wasn’t like major contact. … Never really been one to make a ton of excuses or call for roughing the passer.

“Now if there’s an egregious one, a guy hits me in the helmet, and I look over and they don’t [flag] it. I might say, ‘What’d you see there?’ But I don’t think that one, or the one on Kinlaw, met the standards for roughing the passer.”

The call on Jets defensive lineman Javon Kinlaw came late in the fourth quarter and led to the Bills kicking what ended up being the game-winning field goal. Kinlaw was called for roughing the passer and the Bills went from facing a third-and-long to having first-and-goal.

The other call Aaron Rodgers wasn’t a fan of was the holding call on Jets left tackle Tyron Smith late in the third quarter.

Running back Braelon Allen appeared to score a go-ahead touchdown for New York on third-and-2 from the Bills 4. But instead, Smith was called for holding. The Jets went on to miss a short field goal, making the penalty even more costly.

“I felt like the one on the goal line where we ran the touchdown in, I had a view of it because I handed the ball off, faked it and turned around. And it didn’t affect the play, No. 1, at all. No. 2. I felt like they were both just going to the ground,” Aaron Rodgers said. “That took 7 off the board, and not only 7, but we don’t convert the third down, then we miss the field goal, so we don’t even get 3 out of it.

“That was a game-changing play on the 2-yard line. You don’t see a lot of holdings inside the 5 in general, I would say, unless it’s egregious. I didn’t feel like that met the level of being an egregious hold.”

Rodgers went on to say that he wasn’t playing the officials for the loss but it was without a doubt a frustrating night, both because of the game and some calls. 

“We lost the game. We gave the game away. I’m not saying the refs ruined the game,” he said. “I’m saying there were calls that impacted the game, but we lost the game. Nobody’s blaming the refs.”