The officiating in Sunday’s loss to the Bills was a topic of conversation for Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel on Monday morning.
Vrabel’s team was penalized seven times in the 35-31 loss, including a pass interference call on cornerback Carlton Davis on Buffalo’s go-ahead touchdown drive in the fourth quarter. The Bills had two penalties assessed against them, which was something Vrabel took issue with during an appearance on WEEI.
“It is a difficult job, they do have a difficult job,” Vrabel said. “The consistency — sometimes I struggle with it. I’ll say this, the Bills lead the NFL in offensive holds, and I’ll leave it at that. And that would be hard for me to understand how the team that is coming into the game leading, and that’s how they play, didn’t have one yesterday. That’s hard for me to understand.”
The Bills were actually penalized for holding once in the game, but Vrabel made it clear in the appearance that he thought there were other calls that should have gone against Buffalo over the course of the game. It’s not the first time that Vrabel has made an issue of officiating in Patriots games this season and he’ll have to hope that things start to break his team’s way in the coming weeks.
