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Sunday night was a dark time for fans of the New England Patriots.
The Patriots walked off the Mile High Stadium field with their first loss of the season when they fell to Denver, 30-24, in overtime.
The Broncos were led by backup quarterback Brock Osweiler instead of Peyton Manning, who is out still dealing with injury.
Denver's C.J. Anderson broke lose for the game winning touchdown run making the score 30-24 ending the Patriots undefeated start to the season.
A Lot of people took to the internet to complain about the game and the refs. The Patriots seemed to be the receivers of penalties that seemed unfair.
All the complaints about the game were directed to the refs and who were led by Pete Morelli. This wouldn’t be the first time people have had an issue with Morelli and his crew. In fact, this crew has just been demoted from the Steelers vs Colts game (on Sunday Night Football), and will instead be at the Patriots vs Eagles game at 4:25 P.M. on Fox.
This crew of refs have been in hot water with people recently. On the Oct. 12 game of Steelers vs Chargers, the side judge Rob Vernatchi was fined for not properly keeping track of the clock. The same issue arose in the Patriots vs Broncos game when a player from the Broncos was injured. The Broncos were out of time outs in the 4th quarter and a player injury counts as a timeout, so since they had no more there was supposed to be 40 seconds put back on the clock which could have helped the Patriots a lot. Instead, even though the ref asked for 40 seconds to be put back on the clock, only 10 seconds remained, which gave the Patriots only enough time for a field goal to tie up the game.
Back judge Greg Wilson is also part of this group. He was the judge that caused the controversy back in October 5 when it was the Seahawks vs Lions and illegal batting was not called, which caused the Lions to lose.
More recently, this group was at the 49ers vs Cardinals game. it was noted that the 49ers were flagged 13 times for 81 yards, which lead to a game winning drive for the Cardinals. 49ers left guard Alex Boone was asked about the refs and he responded with, “I’m not too worried about getting fined, I thought those refs stunk.” He also added “This is supposed to be a man’s game. Be a man. that’s what ticks me off, because guys like [Morelli] work in this league and on that field, and we have to deal with it.”
The NFL said that there will be a full-season evaluation of Morelli’s crew. However they said that back on the Oct. 12th mistake, and we have now reached December, the season is almost over and we have yet to hear anything regarding those refs.
