Gold Stars, Penalty Flags: Bolden Emerges In Pats Loss To Broncos
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Patriots suffered a tough loss to the Broncos on Sunday, but they gained a ton of respect in the defeat.
Here are your Gold Stars and Penalty Flags from the game:
Gold Stars
- Brandon Bolden gets a gold star. Bolden has emerged as another go-to-guy for Tom Brady. He is reliable on special teams and now in the passing game as a scoring option. Bolden is getting better and better at stretching the defense. He's become one of the Pats best deep threats.
- Alan Branch and Jabaal Sheard both get gold stars. They were un-blockable against the Broncos and both stepped up their game when Dont'a Hightower went down. Branch got to Brock Osweiler and harassed him and Sheard continues to be a strong player on that defensive line. Branch and Sheard will need to keep it up with Hightower on the shelf for a few weeks with a MCL sprain.
- Bill Belichick gets a gold star. The Pats were down key players on offense and defense,.then they took another major hit when Gronkowski got injured. Then after getting only one penalty called against them for three quarters, every important call went against the Pats in the fourth. It didn't make a difference. The Broncos still needed overtime to put the Patriots away. Afterwards, in his postgame press conference, Bill praised the players and said he respected those guys in the locker room for not quitting despite the odds. Coach had the team prepared and they fought through all the odds. Bill showed everyone why he's the best coach in the league.
Penalty Flags
- I hate doing this but rookie Chris Harper gets a huge penalty flag. Up 21-7 in the fourth quarter, his muffed punt turned the tide of the game. He didn't even have to field the punt. Rookies make mistakes and this one cost the Pats. You can point to that play and see the momentum swing.
As a result, the Pats cut Harper on Monday.
- The officiating gets a penalty flag. Phantom holding calls, phantom offensive pass interference calls. They missed a launch at Brady's head and a face mask on the Broncos go-ahead touchdown in regulation. This is a league-wide problem and the NFL has to take a hard look at this. The consumer has no idea what a catch is, what holding is or what constitutes offensive pass interference. And the refs have no idea either.
Each week, these penalties are called differently by the different crews around the NFL. There is zero uniformity in these calls. Head of officiating, Dean Blandino, needs to huddle these guys up and have a talk because the poor officiating is ruining great games.