Jets get Browns to jump on fourth down to seal second straight win
From left, Jets guard John Simpson, offensive tackle Olu Fashanu and tight end Mason Taylor celebrate after an encroachment penalty on the Cleveland Browns allowed the Jets to run the clock out during the fourth quarter at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Brad Penner
You know things finally are going the Jets’ way when a play that never works does . . . and winds up sealing a win for them.
On fourth-and-5 — with less than a minute remaining in Sunday's game after a 2-yard loss on a run by Breece Hall — the Jets kept their offense on the field for what everyone who has ever watched a down of football knew would be an attempt to draw the Browns offsides. They had no intention of snapping the ball.
Even the Browns knew that. At one point while they were at the line of scrimmage, the Jets’ offensive linemen told Newsday, Cleveland’s Shelby Harris yelled, “Watch the ball!”
Cameron Thomas did not. A second after the warning, the fourth-year defensive end jumped, committing a neutral zone infraction that gave the Jets a first down. Instead of punting the ball to the Browns for a tense final 50 seconds or so, quarterback Justin Fields took a knee twice to run out the clock in a 27-20 victory.
For a Jets team that has been burned badly by their own penalties in recent years — and at times this season, too — it was nice to see someone else blunder in a critical situation.
The Jets said they were shocked the play worked but also were thrilled that it did.
“No way!” guard Joe Tippmann shouted in surprise. Rookie right tackle Armand Membou danced what can only be described as a jig. Guard John Simpson soon joined him.
“I was lit!” Simpson told Newsday.
Center Josh Myers said he didn’t dance because he was too tired.
“But I was laughing watching them do it,” he said.
That jump wasn’t the only penalty late in the game that cost the Browns. On the second snap after the two-minute warning, Fields scrambled and was sacked for a loss of a yard that should have brought about fourth-and-17 from the Jets’ 38 with 1:50 remaining. Instead, linebacker Devin Bush was flagged for holding tight end Jeremy Ruckert in the secondary, giving up only five yards but a more costly automatic first down.
The neutral zone infraction, though, was the killer for the Browns. It also turned out to be one of the best offensive plays of the game for the Jets.
“Just fake it till you make it,” Simpson said of the strategy on that dupe. “Shoot, we couldn’t have done it any better than that. You have to make the play seem as legit as all the other plays. I think we did a really good job of that. Usually guys get up there and do too much. They’re like ‘Arr! Arr! Arr!’ and you’re like ‘OK, this is a fake.’ But the better you play it off and the more it feels like an actual game rep, the easier it is.”
Myers said there are three keys to such a play working.
“Just making your calls, making it look real and hoping they do that,” he said. “Fortunately they did.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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