With just under 11 minutes remaining in the third quarter, referee Bill Vinovich stopped the game between the Patriots and Browns and announced that a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty had been called on Patriots rookie corner Cyrus Jones, a second round pick. Then Vinovich explained that Jones had been ejected from the game.
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Immediately before the penalty, Browns backup quarterback Charlie Whitehurst completed a pass to receiver Terrelle Pryor for 13 yards. The play finished near the Patriots sideline, but on the opposite side of the field, Jones had gotten into an altercation with a Browns player. CBS cameras showed only a brief portion of what entailed -- the shot wasn't wide enough to fit the end of Pryor's catch and the scuffle -- so it was unclear what Jones did to earn his ejection.
After the game, Vinovich spoke to pool reporter Mike Reiss of ESPN Boston to discuss the reasoning behind the ejection.
"It was deemed that [Jones] threw a punch," Vinovich said, adding, "Punch and connect, you’re ejected."
Once Jones left the field, undrafted rookie corner Jonathan Jones took over as the team's No. 3 corner behind Logan Ryan and Malcolm Butler.
