The Buffalo Bills visiting the New York Jets on "Monday Night Football" in Week 6 came down to the wire in Buffalo's 23-20 road win.
However, watching the back-and-forth slugfest between two dialed-in defenses and two of the game's top quarterbacks in the Bills' Josh Allen and the Jets' Aaron Rodgers was sullied by a complete lack of flow in the game because of penalties. Whenever it appeared as though the game was getting exciting, play was stopped for an infraction. If it felt like the number of penalties was out of the ordinary, that sentiment was correct.
Both teams were called for 11 penalties to total a combined 22 infractions, which is tied for the most in a game this season. The combined 204 penalty yards racked up between the Bills (94 penalty yards) and the Jets (110 penalty yards) are in sole possession for the most in a game during the 2024 season through six weeks.
Obviously, some of the penalties, like pass interference and egregious holding, needed to be called. There were also a few questionable ones, like an unnecessary roughness call on Bills edge rusher A.J. Epenesa when he sacked Rodgers with 9:38 left in the third quarter. The officials cited an "unnecessary second act" when making this specific call despite it being unclear what the unnecessary second act was. Even Rodgers disagreed with the penalty on Epenesa.
"It seemed a little ridiculous," Rodgers said postgame. "Some of them seemed really bad, including the roughing passer on me. That's not roughing the passer. We might as well play Sarcastaball if we're going to call those things. And I thought the one on (Javon) Kinlaw was not roughing the passer, either."
One can only hope the NFL, its teams and its officials can clean up its on-field product as the 2024 season progresses.