It appears Mac Jones may have been the victim of some bad luck on Monday Night Football.
After he threw an interception early int he second quarter of the Patriots’ 33-14 loss to the Chicago Bears, Jones was benched and replaced by Bailey Zappe. Jones never saw the field again.
However, a new video angle shows that Jaquan Brisker, who intercepted the pass, might have gotten an assist from ESPN’s SkyCam.
In a slow motion video from PFF’s Doug Kyed, the football appears to make contact with the SkyCam’s wire and its course is altered. It’s difficult to tell how much the contact affected the ball’s final destination:
According to the NFL rulebook: “If a loose ball in play strikes a video board, guide wire, sky cam, or any other object, the ball will be dead immediately, and the down will be replayed at the previous spot.”
This means the play shouldn’t have counted.
On Wednesday, ESPN issued a statement saying the pass did not hit the SkyCam wire.
“This pass from Mac Jones did not hit ESPN’s SkyCam wiring. This video creates a false impression, but in reality the SkyCam wire was more than 15 feet above the ball and our SkyCam system followed all NFL protocols.”
The play didn’t change the outcome of the game because the Chicago Bears routed the Patriots, 33-14.
