A handful of New England Patriots players, including quarterback Tom Brady, expressed their frustration with the officiating in Sunday’s win over the New York Jets after they were flagged a season-high 12 times by Shawn Hochuli’s crew.
Brady particularly didn’t agree with an offensive pass interference call on Patriots running back James White.
“That was — I have no idea how they called that,” Brady said on WEEI’s “Mut and Callahan” show Monday morning. “He didn’t even touch him.
“That particular one, I didn’t really understand. The other ones, I didn’t really see. The chop block or the holding. … They get some wrong. They get most of them right. It’s a tough job for them. The ones that I don’t understand are when, to me, there’s no penalty and they call it. I don’t know how you throw a flag when it doesn’t happen, because you don’t see it. But sometimes I think they see a reaction, and throw it. I think they even out over the course year, but I know the officials aren’t trying to get them wrong. They make mistakes, we make mistakes. We’re not robots.”
Cornerback Stephon Gilmore was penalized for holding. He said sometimes he feels like he can’t touch receivers. Left tackle Trent Brown said he was flagged for “stuff I’ve been doing all season.”
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was asked Monday on a conference call if he agreed the game was called tight.
“I think that looking at the game I’d say that most all of the calls I would agree with,” Belichick said. “I saw what they saw and probably would have called some of the same things that they called. I think on most of those penalties both on them and us — well, on our side of it. I’m not worried about the Jets. But on our side of it, we’ve just got to do a better job with our fundamentals and techniques and continue to emphasize as coaching points of being in good football position, doing things the right way so that we don’t — we’re not susceptible to being called on those penalties.
“I’d say with very few exceptions in the game, I didn’t really have any issue with any of the calls. I thought they were good calls, and we have to do a better job of coaching and executing on our techniques so that we’re not creating an infraction.”
The Patriots have been flagged just 58 times all season. They averaged 4.7 penalties per game prior to Week 12. ESPN’s Mike Reiss reported Sunday that Hochuli’s crew leads the league in flags thrown per game. The Jets were flagged eight times Sunday.
