Patriots denied chance to win by poor officiating in 23-16 loss to Chiefs

FOXBORO — Blame it on the refs! It’s a loser’s lament nearly as old as organized sports. It’s way overused, sometimes by those who aren’t happy unless wallowing in self-pity.

And then there are times when it fits. Sunday at Gillette Stadium clearly was one of those times.

The Patriots were shafted by the refs in a 23-16 loss to the Chiefs, and if the game had been officiated better the most likely outcome would have been a tie at the end of regulation. The game should have been decided in overtime.

A mix of human/zebra error and the unavoidable limitations of the rules of instant replay cost the Patriots four points, turning a touchdown into a field goal. The seven-point deficit left the Patriots no option but to go for a touchdown on their final possession, when they were in chip shot field goal range.

Early in the fourth quarter, N’Keal Harry, a rookie first-round draft choice who badly needed something good to happen the week after being bench in mid-game, watched most of Sunday’s game against the Chiefs from the sideline. When he did get a chance, he delivered, taking a short pass on first-and-10 from the KC 15 along the left sideline. He reached for the pylon with the ball in his hand and scored what should have been a touchdown. Instead, it erroneously was ruled that he had stepped out of bounds at the 3.

The replay clearly showed that Harry did not step out of bounds, but there was nothing the Patriots could do to reverse the error. The Patriots were out of challenges. What about the rule that calls for all scoring plays to be reviewed automatically? It wasn’t ruled as a scoring play, so therefore the rule did not apply.

“Of course it’s frustrating, but at the end of the day it was out of our control,” Harry said. “We all knew it was a touchdown. Everybody clearly saw it was a touchdown, but it was out of our control.”

Pool reporter Mike Reiss of ESPN interviewed referee Jerome Boger after the game.

“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 3-yard line. So, they got together and conferred on that. The final ruling was that he was out of bounds at the 3-yard line.”

Reiss asked Boger an excellent question that all referees should read and ponder: “ When the officials confer like that and you ultimately come in as the lead official, is there any thought to err on the side of touchdown, knowing you would have the benefit of review in that event?”

Boger’s response: “Not really. Those two officials who were covering it, they look at it in real time. 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.”

If Reiss magically had seen the play in his head before the game and gotten to Boger then and asked the question, I wonder if the referee would have emerged from the conference with his colleagues and raised his arms, then studied the replay to see if the call stood. In retrospect, that would have brought a just resolution. Maybe next time, but that’s too late from keeping the Patriots from losing for the third time this season, the second week in a row, and for the first time at Gillette Stadium since the 2017 season.

The Patriots took possession of the series that ended with a field goal on a play that also involved human/zebra error and the limits of instant replay’s reach.

Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce caught a short pass from Patrick Mahomes and fumbled the ball. The play was blown dead when officials ruled Kelce was down on contact. So we’ll never know whether Stephon Gilmore, who had picked the ball up with running room, could have taken it all the way for a score. A review of the play overturned the call on the field and the Patriots were awarded the ball to the Patriots with no return.

“I believe in myself, so I believe I would have scored,” Gilmore said.

Since Harry scored later, that call ended up being irrelevant, except that Harry’s touchdown was taken away, so it does make you wonder how far Gilmore could have taken the fumble return.

The Patriots’ comeback effort wasn’t done yet. On the final drive, Chiefs cornerback Kendall Fuller wrapped Phillip Dorsett’s arms, an obvious pass  interference at about the 10, but it did not draw a flag.

“Calls get made; calls don’t get made,” Dorsett said about the game’s officiating. “I know it’s a tough job.”

Is it tough to keep plowing forward when the calls keep going against you?

“Can’t say it’s tough because at the end of the day we’ve got to go to the next play,” Dorsett said. “You have to. You have no choice. It’s football. Things happen. You miss a call. You get calls. We’ve got a lot of calls in the past. At the end of the day, it is what it is. We still had chances, and we didn’t take advantage of the chances.”

That’s a winner’s response after a tough loss.

The Patriots weren’t blaming the loss on the officiating. But you didn’t have to have a horse in the race to reach the objective conclusion that had the game been better officiated, at the very least, the Patriots would have had the chance to try to win it in overtime.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/35fyK6U