Tom Brady didn’t get the final call, so he tried to get the final word. Cover your ears, kids.
Brady was picked off while looking for Rob Gronkowski in the end zone on the last play of the Patriots’ 24-20 loss to the Panthers on Monday night in Charlotte, N.C., then cursed out officials as he headed to the tunnel for reversing themselves by picking up a flag for pass interference.
Brady was heard dropping an F-bomb on referee Clete Blakeman before ESPN muted the audio.
“That is f—ing brutal,” Brady was heard screaming.
WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE
The Patriots had moved to the Carolina 18-yard line with 3 seconds left, setting up Brady’s final throw. Replays showed Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly wrapping Gronkowski in a bear hug toward the back of the end zone while safety Robert Lester intercepted the underthrown ball as time expired. Back judge Terrence Miles threw a flag, but the officials gathered and waved it off.
Many observers saw pass interference on the play, and Fox rules expert Mike Pereira spoke for the crowd when he said the initial call should have stood.
“Since the flag was thrown they should have stayed with the call. There was clear contact before the ball was intercepted,” Pereira wrote on Twitter. “You could make a case that the pass might have been uncatachable, but the flag was thrown and you should stay with it.”
Brady’s reaction was to angrily make his case to officials. Afterward, he said he didn’t get an explanation and couldn’t see what happened well enough to know if it was a good call.
“(Gronkowski) was kind of weaving in and out of there and I just didn’t really want to throw it over his head and out of bounds,” Brady said. “So I was a little indecisive. It wasn’t a great throw. No excuses. It should’ve been a better throw.”
Blakeman said after the game that Miles saw there was contact and Kuechly was not playing the ball, and that initially led Miles to call defensive pass interference. But Blakeman said the officials met and decided the ball was “underthrown” and it came down to a matter of “uncatchability.”
“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,” Blakeman told a pool reporter.
A pass-interference call would have put the ball on the 1-yard line and given the Patriots one more shot at a game-winning touchdown with no time on the clock.
“You never like to end the game like that on a call but I’m pleased that our officiating crew got together and communicated and discussed it and ultimately we believe we got it right,” Blakeman said.
The final drive followed Cam Newton’s 25-yard touchdown pass to Ted Ginn Jr. with 59 seconds left for the go-ahead score that sent Carolina (7-3) to its sixth straight victory.
Stephen Gostkowski’s 26-yard field goal put the Patriots (7-3) up 20-17 before Newton drove Carolina 83 yards on 13 plays for a touchdown. The speedy Ginn escaped Kyle Arrington along the left sideline and outraced Logan Ryan to the left pylon for his third TD of the season.
After the final no call, Panthers players spilled onto the field from the sideline to celebrate in front of a roaring home crowd.
“There was no explanation given to me. Officials ran off the field. I didn’t see anything,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “There was a flag thrown and then the game was over.”
Brady finished 29 of 40 for 296 yards and one touchdown. Newton completed 19 of 28 passes for 209 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran seven times for 62 yards in what will go down as one of his best games a pro.
— With AP