Many Patriots fans believe flags should’ve been thrown on the hits that knocked Nelson Agholor and N’Keal Harry out of Saturday’s loss to the Colts, and Bill Belichick has hinted at agreeing with that notion.
Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, on the other hand, doesn’t have a problem with how the officials handled both plays.
Agholor took a hard hit from Indianapolis linebacker Darius Leonard and was ruled out of the game soon afterward due to a head injury. Harry suffered a similar fate during the fourth quarter after a hit from safety Andrew Sandejo.
McDaniels was asked about the hits during a video conference Tuesday morning.
“The first thing I’d say is (Harry and Agholor) were doing the right thing,” McDaniels said. “Our guys were trying to come back to the football, which we always try to teach them to do. And I thought they were doing a good job of that. Both plays were kind of bang-bang plays. Look, I would never stand up here and say that the officials’ job is an easy job in those plays. Because it’s very difficult to say, ‘Did he hit him with the shoulder? Did he hit him with this? Did they hit heads at all? Was it accidental? Was it on purpose?’ … So, there’s a lot of things that happen in a short span of time there on those two plays that, certainly, maybe if they review it, they could say, ‘Hey, it was or wasn’t an illegal hit or what have you.’
“I thought that Indy wasn’t doing anything egregious whatsoever. They were trying to go for the football in N’Keal’s case, and they were trying to make a tackle in (Agholor’s) case. And, you know, it was a hard play. Obviously, I know our league is trying to legislate some of those hits that are really dangerous out of the game. And so, we’ve tried to always abide by whatever the rules are here. And I don’t think either play was dirty. It was really close. Had they ruled it the other way, I would’ve said, ‘You know, that makes sense.’ It wouldn’t have been egregious to say that, either. But I understand that they were trying to make a judgment call in both situations and, you know, they get paid to do that and make those calls, and we live with the results.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, there weren’t any updates on Agholor and Harry. Both must clear the NFL’s concussion protocol before returning to the field.
With fellow Patriots receiver Kendrick Bourne now on the reserve/COVID-19 list and uncertain for Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills, New England suddenly is perilously thin at receiver.
