The New England Patriots have a pretty legitimate gripe. They were the victims of a few bad calls in Week 14 against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Yes, they've had some calls go for them in the past (they've also had quite a few go against them too), but that does not mean they weren't on the short end of the stick in this situation.
First, there was the poor call on the fumble that should have resulted in a touchdown for the Patriots. Then there was the N'Keal Harry touchdown.
The wide receiver caught a pass and clearly stayed in bounds, before finishing off the play for a touchdown.
Instead, the refs called him out before he reached the end zone. Even worse, the Patriots did not have any challenges left. The reason for that was because they had used a challenge getting that fumble call mentioned before reversed.
Harry's touchdown would have tied the game up (barring the extra point) and maybe the Patriots could have ended up beating the Patriots and moving to 11-2 instead of 10-3 through the first 14 weeks of the season.
Instead, here we are. New England is 10-3 (still great) and a lot of fans are up-in-arms about the call.
NFL referee, Jerome Boger, explained the reasoning for the call, according to Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com.
“What led to it was the covering official on the wing was blocked out by defenders,” Boger said. “The downfield official who was on the goal line and looking back toward the field of play had that he stepped out at the three-yard line. So, they got together and conferred on that. The final ruling was that he was out of bounds at the three-yard line.”
“Not really. Those two officials who were covering it, they look at it in real time,” Boger said. “This case was unique in that the guy who would have ruled touchdown had him short. So maybe if that ruling official on the goal line had a touchdown, we could have gotten into that, but he thought that that guy stepped out of bounds. The goal line wasn’t in the play.”
Basically, Boger is saying that the only ref that had a clear view thought he was out of bounds. Then he went on to say they didn't think to call it a touchdown, meaning it would automatically get reviewed because they were confident in their call.
As you can guess, this has not gone over well. They were confident in their call (that was wrong) so they didn't take the free great look at the play, which makes little sense.
Whenever a play is close, it makes sense to give them the touchdown because you get video review anyways. That way you can always make sure you get the best look at the play, and these types of mistakes would not happen.
Meanwhile, saying only one ref had a good view and that their ruling was wrong is kind of rough. That's really throwing all the heat on that ref and proving that they were wrong.
Whatever the case though, the play has happened and the referee has given an explanation as to why it was called the way it was called. Like it or not, that's the reality of the situation.
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