Patriots’ End Of First Half Vs. Chiefs Couldn’t Have Gone Worse

The New England Patriots should have at least been tied with the Kansas City Chiefs going into halftime of their Week 4 matchup.

But an unfortunate series of events caused the Patriots to head into the locker room down 6-3:

— Patriots linebacker Shilique Calhoun intercepted Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The NFL officials blew the whistle and determined Mahomes had been sacked, however.

— The officials never announced what happened on the play and allowed the Chiefs to punt the ball away.

— The Patriots had three timeouts and two challenges, but head coach Bill Belichick didn’t use any to stop play and figure out what had occurred or been called on the field.

— CBS rules analyst Gene Steratore implied that Belichick could have challenged the call on the field.

FOX rules analyst Mike Pereira seemingly disagrees.

In my opinion, Corrente called Mahomes "in the grasp." If he did, he gave the wrong signal. He pointed to the ground as if to rule he was down not in the grasp with progress stopped. He made an announcement that no one could hear. Best to not rule him stopped in my opinion.

— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) October 6, 2020

By the way, the ruling of "in the grasp" is not reviewable.

— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) October 6, 2020

— CBS’s Tracy Wolfson spoke to Belichick at the half and asked why he didn’t challenge the play. Belichick told her, “Because he was down.”

— The Patriots wound up in the red zone on their ensuing drive and were in position to kick a field goal, but quarterback Brian Hoyer snapped the ball with 10 seconds and no timeouts and took a sack to run out the clock. Hoyer signaled for a timeout, seemingly believing the Patriots had one remaining, while they didn’t.