Jeremy Kerley scored the touchdown that didn’t count Sunday.
Credit: Getty Images
Jets fans looking for a scapegoat for Sunday’s timeout fiasco found a willing party on Monday.
Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg absolved blame from both head coach Rex Ryan and Sheldon Richardson.
“I want to make it crystal clear everything that goes on offensively is my responsibility, period,” Mornhinweg said Monday. “I’ve got to do a better job of communicating and trusting ‘Big Geno’ [Smith]. I’ve got to trust Geno to get everything fixed before the 40-second [play] clock. That’s the scenario. I was surprised the timeout was called.”
Mornhinweg ran down the sideline to get the attention of Ryan, because only head coaches are permitted to call timeouts from the sideline. But when Smith shifted to the running back to the proper alignment, Mornhinweg no longer needed the stoppage. Richardson, who was standing next to Ryan and the official who blew the whistle, merely was trying to help out Mornhinweg when he said the Jets wanted a timeout.
“It’s fourth down, it’s a big play and we want to make sure it’s right and by the time I looked over at Marty — I never saw Marty initially — but he’s coming down,” Ryan said Monday. “So Sheldon apparently sees the timeout and as he sees it, that’s why he runs up and says ‘timeout’ to the [official].”
Of course, the only reason the play has been dissected like the Zapruder film since Sunday evening is because Jeremy Kerley ended up catching a 36-yard touchdown on the play. The score was nullified by the timeout and the Jets eventually turned the ball over on downs. Ryan seemed ready to move on from the incident Monday.
“You know what, it really doesn’t matter now [whether the ball was snapped before the whistle],” Ryan said. “We can sit back and say, ‘Hey, yeah, it definitely was or it wasn’t,’ or whatever. It doesn’t matter.”
Follow Metro New York Sports Editor Mark Osborne on Twitter @MetroNYSports.
