Monday night's matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the New England Patriots did not end without controversy. It was the Chiefs that eventually emerged with a hard-fought 26-10 victory, but unsurprisingly, the contest had its fair share of contentious moments.

One such instance was early in the game when the referee opted to call off a play wherein New England defensive lineman Shilique Calhoun intercepted a Patrick Mahomes throw.

Tony Corrente was the game official who called off the botched play, and he tried to provide some clarity about his decision after the game between the Chiefs and Patriots:

“I felt that he was being controlled quite a bit prior to him actually going to the ground,” Corrente said in a pool report, via Charean Williams of NBC Sports. “And as he was being controlled, other players were coming in at him, and so with those other players baring down on him, a quarterback is considered in the grasp and his forward progress is considered stopped when I feel as though the player’s safety is being jeopardized. And that was the case in this instance. So, rather than allow him to get hit by a second and third player, we shut it down and considered it forward progress.”

That's one way of looking at it. Needless to say, though, not all Pats fans would agree with the referee's call here in this showdown against the Chiefs.

Interestingly, New England coach Bill Belichick opted not to challenge the controversial call. As it turns out, Belichick never had the chance to.

“No, because the play was shut down and stopped prior to the fumble occurring, or prior to him losing control of the football,” Corrente said when asked whether the Patriots could have challenged. “There was no reviewable aspect of that play.”

The play transpired relatively early in the game, and at that point, the Pats were down 6-3. There's no way to tell if this particular play would have turned the game around for New England had the whistle gone in their direction.

They would have had the ball at the 35-yard line of the Chiefs, though, so ultimately, it may have been a momentum-swing type of play.