The Patriots only have themselves to blame for losing out on a first-round bye in 2019, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t get screwed along the way.
The top example is the infamous home loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 14. And Kyle Van Noy still isn’t over it.
Playing off Shams Charania’s Wednesday night report about the Mavericks protesting their 127-125 loss to the Golden State Warriors, Van Noy brought New England fans on an uncomfortable trip down memory lane. Like Dallas owner Mark Cuban, Van Noy has an issue with the officials whom he believes are responsible for an unjust defeat.
“Can I do that for Chiefs vs Pats game 2019 while we’re at it Shams???!!” the free agent linebacker tweeted.
Forget what happened? Let’s jog your memory.
Trailing 23-13 early in the fourth quarter, Tom Brady hit N’Keal Harry on a short pass for an apparent touchdown. The Patriots, who scored a touchdown on their previous possession, had all the momentum and appeared on the verge of yet another comeback win.
But Harry was ruled out at the 3-yard line despite clearly staying in bounds. And because New England already had exhausted its two challenges (more on that in a minute), it wasn’t able to use another. Furthermore, referee Jerome Boger after the game said his crew didn’t consider immediately ruling the play a touchdown, which would’ve prompted an automatic review.
So, the Patriots couldn’t do anything about it. They wound up settling for a field goal and eventually suffered a costly 23-16 loss.
It was an all-around ugly night for Boger’s crew. On the Kansas City drive that immediately preceded the Harry play, tight end Travis Kelce was ruled down by contact after putting the ball on the ground. Stephon Gilmore would’ve pulled off a scoop-and-score, but the play was immediately blown dead. Bill Belichick was forced to exhaust his final challenge, and although the Patriots were awarded the fumble recovery, NFL rules prevented Gilmore from getting the touchdown.
The officials also missed a clear defensive pass interference against Patriots receiver Phillip Dorsett in the final minutes.
The Patriots and Chiefs both finished the season 12-4, but Kansas City earned the AFC’s final first-round bye thanks to the head-to-head tiebreaker. New England eventually suffered a first-round playoff loss to the Tennessee Titans in Tom Brady’s final game with the Patriots, who are 25-26 in the three years since he left.
Of course, New England still had a chance in Week 17 to clinch the first-round bye, but it lost to the Miami Dolphins in one of the worst defeats of the Belichick era.
If you want to ignore all the proper context, you can say a win against the Chiefs that night could’ve given the Patriots a better chance at a deep playoff run. Van Noy probably feels that way.
