The Broncos-Patriots refs got slammed for a baffling sequence in the second quarter involving a pivotal Jarrett Stidham fumble.
The Broncos hosted the Patriots on Sunday in the AFC championship game for a chance to go to the Super Bowl. But,of the game before opening up the scoring by throwing a touchdown pass to Courtland Sutton.
The Broncos’ defense proved ready to go from the opening whistle and completely shut down Drake Maye’s offense. It was all going Denver’s way. Then, halfway through the second quarter, Stidham dropped back to pass and panicked upon feeling the pressure. He got flushed out of the pocket immediately and tried to fling the ball away as New England defenders tackled the QB. From the broadcast view, it wasn’t clear whether he actually got rid of the ball or fumbled. It was even less clear on the field, where one referee acted like it was a fumble while others blew their whistles to signal an incomplete pass. The Patriots’ defense, not totally sure what was going on, grabbed the loose football and ran into the end zone.Initially the officials called it an incomplete pass and threw a flag for intentional grounding. Replay showed it was pretty close to a forced fumble by the New England defense, though, and coach Mike Vrabel seemed ready to challenge it. But then the call was changed to a fumble, as Stidham’s incomplete pass had traveled backwards. But because at least one ref blew the whistle, the Patriots’ return couldn’t count and Vrabel was unable to challenge the ruling. The final call by the refs was a backwards pass by Stidham recovered by the Pats, resulting in New England possession in Denver red zone. Refs rule this a backwards pass and not a fumble, even though the Patriots recovered the ball and ran it for a touchdown the ball cannot be advanced.It was an absolute disaster of a sequence for the refs, as well as CBS rules analyst Gene Steratore, and led to plenty of ridicule from everyone watching.I don’t get how a pass that ends up in front of the passer is a backward pass but carry onYou could read Vrabel's lips pretty easily and i'm paraphrasing "Why did you blow the whistle?"If the Patriots don't get a TD out of this I think Mike Vrabel should be allowed to fight one official. You see the most ridiculous crap allowed to play out every week, and THAT is the play they decided to blow the whistle on.Jarrett Stidham trying to backpedal his way away from pressure. Right call eventually made — after all kinds of deliberation and an initial officiating screwup — and the backward pass gives NE possession.Gene Steratore getting this one wrong 3 separate times trying to agree with the refs while the refs changed their own minds, legendary stuffAll the refs have to do is just let every play that’s up in the air go and they can’t even do that manOn the one hand, refs fixed the call to reflect a fumble from Jarrett Stidham, giving the Patriots the ball. On the other, it was a clear scoop and score from the Patriots, and so even giving them the ball doesn't fully rectify the call.A very messy showing from the officials. Fortunately for the Patriots, the mistakes didn’t end up mattering—New England got possession of the ball and scored a few plays later on a Drake Maye run. But the tens of millions of viewers who tune in to watch these NFL playoff games are clearly frustrated by the regular mistakes made by the officiating crews across the league each week.Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.
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