One day after blowing a 21-point lead, Mike Vrabel opted to complain about officiating rather than simply give the Buffalo Bills their due.
In his weekly appearance on WEEI, Vrabel acknowledged that officials have a difficult job but was quick to throw some blame their way.
“They do have a difficult job. The consistency — sometimes I struggle with it,” Vrabel told WEEI. “I’ll say this: The Bills lead the NFL in offensive holds, and I’ll leave it at that. That would be hard for me to understand — how a team coming into the game leading, and that’s how they play, didn’t have one yesterday. So that’s hard for me to understand.”
Vrabel apparently forgot about an offensive holding call on O’Cyrus Torrence that negated a Josh Allen rushing touchdown deep in Patriots territory. Allen would go on to throw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Dawson Knox on the next play.
Vrabel also missed out on several key details when discussing the Bills as the NFL’s leader in offensive holds. Thad Brown of WROC-TV did a good job of breaking it down.
Vrabel would add that the officiating and penalties were not the main reason that they lost the game, but complaining about the officiating is likely Vrabel’s way to try to work the officials as the playoffs approach. Regardless of the reason, Vrabel found a way to point some blame at the officiating for their loss to the Bills.
On Monday, Matt Parrino asked Sean McDermott about Vrabel’s comments. McDermott took the high road.
“We go by what the officials call,” McDermott said. “We’re focused on the Cleveland Browns at this point. So, Mike can talk about what he wants to talk about, all due respect. We enjoyed a good game yesterday, hard fought game, and we’re moving on.”
