It’s on to the Buffalo Bills for the New England Patriots after a heartbreaking Thursday night road loss to the Minnesota Vikings. However, the team’s willingness to quickly turn the page hasn’t made the controversial Thanksgiving game any less of a talking point.
There were several obvious missed calls on the field that aided in the Patriots dropping their fifth loss of the season, but the most egregious to fans has been the overturned touchdown on the Hunter Henry catch.
NFL senior vice president of officiating Walt Anderson has already given his explanation for why the touchdown was overturned, but it doesn’t change the fact that there’s no clear understanding of what a catch is in the NFL.
Coach Bill Belichick isn’t one to dwell on things he can’t control, but during an appearance on The Greg Hill Show, he admitted there was no clear “consensus” on those sorts of plays.
“We look at plays in the offseason, officials might bring in 20 plays and say, ‘Okay, these 10 are catches, these 10 aren’t.’ I think we all kind of sit in the room, and I don’t think there’s a consensus on, ‘Oh yeah, I see that.’ There are close plays, and it’s hard to reach a consensus on a lot of plays,” said Belichick. “What the rule is, and what you actually see on the video that they show, sometimes it’s not clear to everybody what exactly is we’re seeing.
“Did this happen? Was his foot down? Did he have possession? Did he not? There’s a lot of close plays. We’re looking ahead. We’re moving on. There’s nothing we can do about that. Those calls are out of our control. So whatever they are, we just have to deal with them and move on.”
It's a Patriots Monday and Bill Belichick sounds just as confused as all of us regarding the Hunter Henry no catch and what the NFL believes is a catch or not. #Patriots #ForeverNE pic.twitter.com/TfGu7xDpTi
— The Greg Hill Show (@TheGregHillShow) November 28, 2022
Former players have come out and criticized the overturned call, including former All-Pro receiver Dez Bryant, who knows what it’s like to be on the wrong end of a catch call.
It’ll likely remain a talking point, but there’s clearly no changing the outcome. The Patriots will have to move on and find a way to bounce back by winning football games.
The loss to the Vikings knocked them out of the playoff picture, but they’ll have a chance to climb back in with a win over a very tough Buffalo Bills team in Week 13.
