The blown whistle play might not have been a huge gain

Not buying it. Amendola was off to the races. Darby wasn't that close to him and there was no one else within a mile. Nuts and bolts we got screwed.

By the way, Mike Reiss interviewed a referee from last night about it and it's on the team's website:
Referee Gene Steratore Pool Report

Yeah on second look it was not a guaranteed touchdown, certainly a play Dola can make but, we made have made out better with the penalty.

Amendola is just not that fast. He had an opportunity later in the game to get a TD and was caught from behind.

Froob said:

Yeah on second look it was not a guaranteed touchdown, certainly a play Dola can make but, we made have made out better with the penalty.

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But we already had the penalty. Rex interfered before the reception, so we didn't benefit from anything, except, I guess, they could have put the ball back at the previous line of scrimmage. In real time it looked like Amendola could have scored, or at least had a huge gain. We weren't really given any favors.

Gee, why do I feel that this won't be the last inadvertent mistake by a NFL referee that could effect a Pat's game? It's not like the NFL would conspire to do something?

memento said:

By the way, Mike Reiss interviewed a referee from last night about it and it's on the team's website:
Referee Gene Steratore Pool Report

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They can't even keep the lies straight. Steratore says the official blew the whistle "as" Brady released the ball, yet "in their judgement" Amendola had the ball when the whistle was blown. I know Brady has a good arm, but he can't throw instantaneous balls.

So yeah, they clearly made something up to try to at least partially undo their mistake.

I have never heard Gillette boo so loudly for so long before.

I'd like to formally apologize, because when Bill was telling the crowd to STFU I said out loud "Hey f*** you Bill, that could've been a 70+ yard touchdown, we're f***ing mad!"

I hope BB doesn't hate us.

Michael McDermott @mikemcdermott76
Watching the NFL Network replay of the Pats-Bills game. Due to "time constraints," they cut out the inadvertent whistle play. Unbelievable.

Retweeted by Mark Daniels

QuantumMechanic said:

They can't even keep the lies straight. Steratore says the official blew the whistle "as" Brady released the ball, yet "in their judgement" Amendola had the ball when the whistle was blown. I know Brady has a good arm, but he can't throw instantaneous balls.

So yeah, they clearly made something up to try to at least partially undo their mistake.

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Steratore didn't say that at all. He said the ref blew the whistle as he lost sight of the ball. He had no idea that Amendola even caught it.

How could they know after the fact when the whistle blew? Most people had no idea what happened. And the guy who blew the whistle had no idea where the ball was.

brdmaverick said:

He was in great position to make a play on the ball or make a tackle.

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I just watched the play, the whistle blew a split second before Danny catches the ball so the defender had no chance to make a play on it. He could have made a tackle, but his positioning wasn't great there either, since his body was turned more toward the opposite sideline while Amendola was turning up field. He could have dove at Danny's legs and taken him down, but if he missed it would have been a certain TD. My best guess, he would have pursued Danny and taken him down about where NE got the ball.

shmessy said:

Michael McDermott @mikemcdermott76
Watching the NFL Network replay of the Pats-Bills game. Due to "time constraints," they cut out the inadvertent whistle play. Unbelievable.

Retweeted by Mark Daniels

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Integrity!

can't help but notice there were no inadvertent whistles when tyrod was scrambling.

Or when Eli is in the grasp...

QuantumMechanic said:

I think it was a makeup call.

As the replay showed, the ball was clearly still in the air so it should have been no play. And I'm sure the refs knew it, too. But they also knew that would have been massively unfair to NE so they basically took one for integrity for a change and knowingly lied about when the whistle blew so that NE could have the catch. That's why the conference was so long.

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You could see in Steratores eyes that he knew that they F:ed up big time. He looked panicked directly after the whistle blew.

They were blowing the whistle early all night. Anyone else notice during one of Allen's punt? The ball was still rolling when they blew the whistle and then marked the ball a yard short of where the ball eventually stopped. There was at least another play where in my head I was like "wow that was a really quick whistle".

I didn't study the replays, but I'm in the camp of the defender heard the whistle and let up before the ball got to Amendola. Seems like it would have definitely been a reception, but the defender was close enough where DA would've had to make a James White like shake off to get more yards.

There's no way in hell that Amendola doesn't at least gain another twenty yards. Darby would have had to re-position his body on the fly just to try to catch Amendola from behind. They just did a Sports Science on it on ESPN, and they said the same thing. Amendola was off to the races on the catch. Thanks for the screw job, Roger!

No way to tell what would have happened if the whistle hadn't blown. My real-time reaction at the game was that Danny A had a lot of room to run, but as others have pointed out, Darby reacts to the whistle too.

What I disagree with is the narrative that the officials "lied" or that crediting Amendola with the reception and assessing the penalty against the increasing out-of-control Bills coach was a conscious attempt to rectify the original screw up. The replay/audio does show Amendola caught the ball just after the whistle, but it was very close. Remember - there was no replay. The zebras had to decide what happened based on their recollections alone. Only with the benefit of replay can we see that their judgment was wrong, but to assign to malicious intent to that is an opinion, not a fact.

On the drive home, I made the mistake of listening to Bertrand and DeOssie (the latter of whom is an insufferable, certified card-carrying, knuckle-dragging moron). DeOssie's inflammatory intrepretation was that the officiating crew blatantly "lied" (his word) saying the catch occured before the whistle and that the penalty was another "lie" that the crew arrived at in the interminable conference after the play. What a putz.

The only positive I can see out of the whole situation is that this team continues to be mentally tough and refuses to become unhinged (unlike Rex the Lunatic) when something doesn't go their way.

Froob said:

Or when Eli is in the grasp...

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Yet another "wish I could dislike the idea without disliking the post or poster" candidate.