Patriots Win An Odd Game

We have a problem when life imitates TV commercials.

Couple years ago, an airline ad showed a referee searching his pockets vainly for a coin so that he could do the toss before a football game. His embarrassment and discomfort were clear. Now there’s one with the officiating crew huddled up on the field, trying to figure out how to correct a mistake, and a fan yells from the stands: “Your mike is on.” The officials quickly make a decision that favors the home side.

So welcome to Monday night’s football game between the Buffalo Bills and the New England Patriots, where the officials huddled more than the players, botched a huge call and got another wrong at the end. And this crew, headed by referee Gene Steratore, is considered one of the better ones.

The Patriots, who won 20-13, lost a touchdown when an official inadvertently blew his whistle on a pass from Tom Brady to Danny Amendola. The inadvertent whistle is among the two or three top sins an official can commit because it prematurely stops play. But in the follow-up, the officials decided the whistle came after Amendola’s catch, so they gave the Patriots the ball there and tacked on a 15-yard penalty against the Bills’ bench for interfering with the official who blew the whistle. King Solomon would have loved this compromise.

Problem: The ball was in the air when the whistle blew. Fairly obvious upon instant replay. Except the officials can’t use instant replay for this type of call. And in that scenario, the ball is dead and goes back to the original line of scrimmage.

At the end of the game, Bills receiver Sammy Watkins caught a pass, hit the turf and went out of bounds with two seconds left. The field official wound the clock, rather than stopping it, and the game ended without the Bills at least getting one last shot at the end zone. The call was wrong, and it ended a night of officiating disasters.

It will only fuel more discussions about the NFL’s clear problem with how its game is adjudicated and the replay process.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .