Patriots, Mac Jones benefit from inexplicable roughing the passer penalty on Commanders' KJ Henry

BOSTON -- NFL rules and their enforcement can often be the subject of much debate. Such is the nature of high-speed, high-stakes sporting events.

Yet the rarest of rare occasions took place on Sunday afternoon in Foxboro, when the referee made a call so bad that everyone in the universe agreed that it was a bad call.

It came on the opening drive of the second half in the game between the Patriots and Commanders. On a third-and-10 at the Washington 38-yard line, Jones was sacked behind the line of scrimmage, a play that appeared to have pushed the Patriots out of field-goal range.

Yet as soon as KJ Henry tackled Jones, a flag flew from referee Adrian Hill. The penalty: Roughing the passer.

As for why the penalty was called, well, that's anybody's guess.

FOX's rules analyst Dean Blandino, a former director of NFL officiating, kind of explained why the call was made.

"This is what the officials are being directed to call," Blandino said on the broadcast. "They want the defender to get off to the side. But like you guys were saying, this is just a tackle. This is just momentum, there's nothing punishing, there's no second act. I don't like it as a foul, but this is what the league is directing the officials to call."

UPDATE: After the game, which Washington won, Hill was asked in a pool report about the call.

"I was the calling official and the call was roughing the passer due to full body weight," Hill said. "The ruling on the field was that the defender came down with forceable contact, chest-to-chest. He didn't perform one of those acts to remove most of that body weight – a gator roll or a clear to the side when he was coming in. He came down directly with that force on the player, so the category was full body weight."

Hill was asked what the defender could have done to have avoided the call.

"There are two common techniques," Hill answered. "One we call the 'gator roll' where if he takes that player and rolls to the side so they both land on their side, that 90-degree rotation as he comes around. Or he comes down and breaks the fall first with hands and knees almost like in a crab-like fashion on top of the quarterback."