Carolina’s Robert Lester picked off a pass intended for Rob Gronkowski in the end zone to seal a 24-20 victory. A flag was initially thrown at Luke Kuechly, who was bear-hugging Gronk. It was then picked up because, AND I QUOTE:
“There were two officials that came in,” referee Clete Blakeman said after the game, according to MassLive.com's Nick Underhill. “One was the umpire and the other one was our side judge and there was a discussion at that point as to the, in essence, the catchability of the ball due to it's location.
“So it was determined at that point in time that when the primary contact occurred on the tight end that the ball, in essence, was coming in underthrown and, in essence, it was immediately at that point intercepted at the front end of the end zone,” Blakeman continued. “So there was a determination that, in essence, uncatchability, that the ball was intercepted at or about the same time the primary contact against the receiver occurred.”
As you may suspect, Brady wasn’t pleased with this ruling and let everyone know about it with some choice language.
I’m no expert, but watching the Patriots get boned had to please a wide swath of the population.
[H/T: CBS Sports, The Big Lead]
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