N’Keal Harry probably said it best after the New England Patriots’ 23-16 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs: Everyone could clearly see he scored a touchdown on his only catch of the game.
“I thought it was a touchdown. I’m pretty sure everyone else thought it was a touchdown,” Harry told reporters after the game. “It’s frustrating.”
The play didn’t and couldn’t go to replay. Coach Bill Belichick had used both his challenges, so he couldn’t ask the officials to review Harry’s 13-yard catch, which was ruled out at the 3-yard line. Replays showed he stayed in-bounds and extended for the pylon, but because it wasn’t called a scoring play on the field, the officials couldn’t review it on their own. So the mistake stood. The Patriots settled for a field goal a few plays later.
“What led to it was the covering official on the wing was blocked out by defenders,” head referee Jerome Boger told a pool reporter after the game. “The downfield official who was on the goal line and looking back toward the field of play had that he stepped out at the three-yard line. So, they got together and conferred on that. The final ruling was that he was out of bounds at the three-yard line.”
Was there any sense that the head official should step in and call it a touchdown so that it could at least go under review?
“Not really. Those two officials who were covering it, they look at it in real time,” Boger said. “This case was unique in that the guy who would have ruled touchdown had him short. So maybe if that ruling official on the goal line had a touchdown, we could have gotten into that, but he thought that that guy stepped out of bounds. The goal line wasn’t in the play.”
On New England’s final offensive drive, that touchdown would have proved useful, as they finished couldn’t convert a fourth-and-goal on the 3-yard line. If they had the touchdown from Harry, the Patriots would have only needed a field goal to tie. They instead needed the touchdown and they didn’t get it. Kansas City walked away with a victory, and New England fell to 10-3 with their three losses coming over the last five games.
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