Inadvertent Whistle Costs Patriots Big Play Against Bills
BOSTON (CBS) -- It didn't cost them in the end, but an inadvertent whistle took away what could have been a big play for the Patriots on Monday night.
It occurred in the third quarter of New England's 20-13 win over the Buffalo Bills in Foxboro. As the Buffalo defense brought pressure on Tom Brady, he rolled to his right and went looking for Danny Amendola. The quarterback lofted a pass to his receiver before stepping out of bounds, and Amendola had nothing but clear space in front of him when he hauled in the reception. He likely could have found the end zone, but that's when that pesky "inadvertent whistle" came into play.
A ref blew his whistle just as Brady delivered the strike, possibly thinking the QB stepped out of bounds, and the play was ruled dead at the spot of Amendola's catch. What could have been a lengthy gain -- and potentially a New England score -- in a 10-3 game at the time ended up in the books as a 14-yard reception.
"Just one of those plays," Brady said after the game. "I really don't know what happened."
"It is what it is," said Bill Belichick. "They explained exactly what happened, and those are the procedures they follow... What else is there to do?"
The Patriots did get an extra 15 yards thanks to an interference call on Buffalo head coach Rex Ryan, who was seen walking in front of the officials on the Bills' sideline just before the inadvertent whistle was blown. But 29 yards is nothing when the play could have led to six points.
The Patriots ended up settling for a field goal attempt a few plays later, which Stephen Gostkowski missed from 54-yards out -- his first miss of the season.
The play wasn't the first -- or only -- time Monday night's officials look liked they were working the first game of their careers. Lead official Gene Steratore explained the call after the game, saying the line judge lost track of the football when he blew his whistle.
"I think as Tom released the football, the line judge lost track of maybe where the ball was at that point and almost by its own definition, inadvertently blew the whistle," he explained. "What we do from that point onward is find out where the football was at the time the whistle was blown. We deemed it to be, in our judgement, received by the receiver, as we stated, at the 45-yard line, I believe. And then by rule, what you do with that, or once you determine in your judgement where the ball was at the time of the whistle, if it's in a possession of a player, which we deemed it to be, you take all fouls then, that would have been on that play and you enforce them from that spot of where the ball would be declared dead by the inadvertent whistle."
Dean Blandino, the NFL vice president of officiating, said it was a mistake on the official's part, but he was pleased with how the crew handled the aftermath.
"That's a mistake and we shouldn't have blown the whistle," he said on The NFL Network. "Once it did happen, I thought the crew did a good job as to where they were going to put the football."
New England went on to win and improve to 10-0 on the season, but the inadvertent whistle is another bad call to add to an already long list of bad calls by NFL officials this season.
