Bill Belichick Went Ballistic After a Bogus Call Against the Patriots
He had a point, though
Things really are different in New England this year. Tom Brady is gone and the Patriots are having lousy calls go against them.
In the second quarter of Monday night’s loss to the Chiefs, the Patriots were denied a turnover by a really brutal refereeing decision. Chase Winovich and Deatrich Wise Jr. combined to sack Patrick Mahomes and the ball ended up the hands of Shilique Calhoun, who had a clear path to the end zone.
But the turnover didn’t count, because referee Tony Corrente ruled Mahomes was “in the grasp” and blew the play dead before the ball came out.
Here’s a closer look.
You don’t have to be a Patriots fan to think that’s a bogus call. Winovich barely begins to take Mahomes to the ground when the ball comes loose.
The call had Bill Belichick absolutely irate. The camera cut to him on the sideline, literally red in the face, berating an official. He might have even had steam coming out of his ears.
Corrente explained after the game that he was quick with the whistle because he was concerned for Mahomes’s safety.
“I felt that he was being controlled quite a bit prior to him actually going to the ground. And as he was being controlled, other players were coming in at him,” Corrente told a pool reporter. “And so with those other players bearing down on him, a quarterback is considered in the grasp and his forward progress is considered stopped when I feel as though the player's safety is being jeopardized. And that was the case in this instance. So, rather than allow him to get hit by a second and third player, we shut it down and considered it forward progress at that point.”
The shoe is on the other foot for the Patriots now. They’re not the only team whose star quarterback is being protected by the refs.
A touchdown there would have given the Patriots some life but considering how the rest of the game played out, it probably wouldn’t have been the difference between a win and a loss. So the Mahomes play still isn’t even close to the worst example of the Patriots being screwed by a misapplication of the in-the-grasp rule.
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