There’s not one singular play or moment from Sunday that you can point to and say, “This is why the Patriots lost 25-24 to the Colts.”
You can talk about the Patriots’ lack of clock management on their second-to-last possession of the game, following what should have been a game-sealing Christian Gonzalez interception that gave the ball back to Indianapolis to set-up their 19-play, 80-yard, game-winning touchdown drive.
You can talk about the Patriots having seven accepted penalties against them - a threshold this season that when they’ve reached it, has amounted to a 1-7 record.
You can talk about the missed chip-shot field goal at the end of the first half, or the decision to attempt a historic 68-yard field goal at the end of regulation instead of opting for a Hail Mary try from rookie Drake Maye.
You can talk about a run defense that allowed a combined 144 yards on the ground to quarterback Anthony Richardson and running Jonathan Taylor.
And if you’d like to blame the refs for missing a holding call on Richardson’s game-winning two-point conversion run up the middle of the defense, I guess you can do that, too.
With the ball set up at the 2 yard line, Richardson took a shotgun snap, and barreled his way through a hole just left of center, making his way into the end zone for the eventual game-winning score.
But with the right camera angle, as Richardson rumbled his way through the thick of the defense, you can clearly see Colts guard Mark Glowinski holding Patriots defensive tackle Christian Barmore. Had it not been for Richardson running through a hole created by this Glowinski hold, we might be talking about a 24-23 Patriots win right now.
Patriot first-year head coach Jerod Mayo was asked about the clear missed call on Monday during his weekly appearance with WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show.
WEEI’s Chris Curtis said, “If we’re gonna talk about penalties, I mean, Christian Barmore after the game, the two-point conversion try. I mean, if you do say that this is [an officiating] crew that calls a lot of holding, there was a pretty obvious one on the biggest play of the game.”
“Yeah, that should’ve been,” said Mayo. “I thought so, too. But I’m not gonna get fined.
“I love referees. But really, like - I mean, they’re in a difficult position, too. Especially as it comes down to the end of games like that.”
Mayo’s answer on the topic of the missed holding call during his virtual press conference on Monday morning was a bit more matter-of-fact.
“Look, they didn't call it,” Mayo said on Webex. “I thought he got held. I watched the film. I mean, it's pretty clear to me, but it wasn't called. So, there's no excuses from me on that.”
Mayo might not want to use this as an excuse for the loss, but Patriots fans who skew more positive towards the team (I know it’s hard to believe, but they’re out there) will be blowing up their group chats with these quotes accompanied by the camera angle saying, “Look! See! We got robbed!”
As far as that fine goes for Mayo, my guess is he needs to worry more about the press conference quote rather than the radio answer. It’s possible that both combined could land on someone’s desk at the league office.
Incoming fine or not, Mayo and his team return to the practice field on Tuesday for a singular practice before taking the rest of the week off for their Week 14 bye.