The New England Patriots didn’t do a lot of things well Sunday night, but it will be officiating gaffes that ultimately are remembered from the loss.
Thanks in part to some significant blown calls that prevented touchdowns, the Patriots fell 23-16 to the Kansas City Chiefs at Gillette Stadium, good for New England’s third loss of the campaign.
While the Pats positioned themselves for a victory in the end, missteps on both sides of the ball throughout the game ultimately made things much harder on them. And that’s why NFL-exec-turned-analyst Mike Lombardi, who once worked for the Patriots, believes that it was the offensive line that should shoulder a good chunk of the blame for the loss, not the officials.
“The reality of it is you never lose a game because those guys blow calls. They miss calls, they blow calls, and when they call things they don’t see, this is always when they get in the most trouble,” Lombardi said on VSIN, which can be seen on NESN. “… But make no mistake about it, the Patriots didn’t lose this game because of bad calls, the Patriots lost this game because their offensive line is in bad shape. We’ve not talked about it, but what I thought the Chiefs did a remarkable job of (Sunday) is Brendan Daly is their defensive line coach — he was in New England for five years. He knew James Ferentz, Kirk Ferentz’s son, was the starting center, (so) he put Chris Jones over (James) Ferentz and he couldn’t handle it. And it became a problem. Isaiah Wynn played poorly. Their offensive line is nowhere near where it needs to be.”
You can listen to Lombardi’s full comments here.
“The Patriots didn’t lose this game because of bad calls. The Patriots lost this game because their offensive line is in bad shape.” –@mlombardinfl on #KCvsNE@MitchMossRadio & @PaulyHoward on #FollowTheMoney @SIRIUSXM 204/@NESN/@MSGNetworks/@thebetrnetwork pic.twitter.com/EdsVhs3QPV
— VSiN (@VSiNLive) December 9, 2019
The offensive line has been a problem pretty much the entire season, and though Wynn returning has helped to a degree, it’s still a flawed unit. The Patriots now will try to figure things out against the Cincinnati Bengals, a matchup that already is mired in a little drama.
