Count Bills coach Rex Ryan among the many still scratching their heads over officiating decisions made during Monday night's Bills-Patriots game.
At least three mistakes were made by referee Gene Steratore and his seven-man crew during the game, a 20-13 Patriots win. The one that has received the most attention occurred during a third-quarter play in which an official inadvertently blew dead a completion to wide receiver Danny Amendola.
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Ryan, who was on the sideline several feet from Patriots quarterback Tom Brady when the play was whistled dead, received a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for "obstructing" the play, according to Steratore. Needless to say, Ryan disagreed with the assessment.
#Bills Rex Ryan was where he was supposed to be. Line judge was out of position off solid white boundary. #NFL pic.twitter.com/FGPivJdDqy
— Ron Clements (@Ron_Clements) November 25, 2015"Yeah, that was interesting," Ryan said Tuesday during his weekly appearance on WGR-AM radio in Buffalo, via ESPN.com. "I actually never knew I got a penalty. I never bumped into anybody. ... No. 1, I think that should be blown dead, period. I mean, it was blown dead. Marcell (Dareus) stopped. (Ronald) Darby stops. Everybody stops. And then the inadvertent whistle or whatever. And they say, well, by rule, where he caught the ball is where he’s gonna spot the ball. And I’m like, ‘Well, he never caught it here. He caught it, you know.’
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"And then they’re like, ‘Well, oh, yeah, we had a penalty on you.’ I’m like, ‘What?’ Like, ‘You had a penalty on me?' It wasn’t — we’ll leave it to the officials to explain it, because I’m sure they’ll do a much better job of explaining it. I can’t remember exactly what was told to me. I was thinking more in shock than anything else."
Some contend that, had the play been allowed to continue, Amendola would have scored a touchdown. The ball instead was placed at the spot of Amendola's catch and the Patriots were unable to score, with Stephen Gostkowski missing a 54-yard field-goal attempt.
A source with the NFL Referees Association told The Boston Globe that officials were attempting to "appease both sides" with their ruling of a 14-yard catch and the penalty against Ryan. Dean Blandino, the NFL's vice president of officiating, addressed the play Monday night on NFL Network.
Ryan said he felt disrespected by the officials' decision to penalize him, pondering whether counterpart Bill Belichick would have received the same treatment.
"I was telling my guy, ‘Come get him, come get him.’ Trying to cut him off. And I’m just trying to get my guy to close the gap on him, and that’s really what happened," Ryan said. "But I wasn’t on the field of play. OK, I was in the white. I got news for you: A lot of times coaches are in the white. I certainly didn’t interfere with the official, I can tell you that much, in my view. They can say something else, but quite honestly, I never got that one.
"And it’s hard not to take it personal because are you going to flag Bill Belichick on this? I don’t know."
