How about some more referee controversy? Everyone loves some of that, right? The refs stole the show late in the second quarter after blowing what would have been a scoop and score for the Patriots dead before the return. New England ended up scoring anyway, but the refs need to clean it up, and the NFL world let them hear it.
Fans and Analysts React to Controversial Call
The NFL should be grateful this call didn’t prove too costly, since the Patriots scored right after. Blowing the whistle early is a frequent mistake for refs, and it almost cost the Patriots. Former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky chimed in aggressively and went after the refs for blowing the play dead.
“DONT BLOW THE WHISTLE AGAIN, same thing that happened in Tampa/Carolina game,” said Orlovsky.
DONT BLOW THE WHISTLE
AGAIN
same thing that happened in Tampa/carolina game
— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) January 25, 2026
The refs were immersed in controversy last week during the Broncos game. Now, there’s more chaos in Denver. At first, there was a debate over whether the pass was incomplete or a fumble. The initial ruling was intentional grounding and an incomplete pass, which led to the whistle being blown early. Take a look at the play and the refs blowing it dead early.
Refs blow the whistle early and take a potential TD off the boardpic.twitter.com/j5m2aSWJC0
— Underdog NFL (@UnderdogNFL) January 25, 2026
Analysts and former NFL players reacted immediately to the play, asserting it was a fumble.
“That’s a fumble,” said one analyst.
That’s a fumble.
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) January 25, 2026
“That should be a fumble recovered for a touchdown, but because they blew the whistle for some unknown reason, the Patriots will need to now work for the 6,” said CBS’ Jonathan Jones.
That should be a fumble recovered for a touchdown but because they blew the whistle for some unknown reason the Patriots will need to now work for the 6
— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) January 25, 2026
Blowing the whistle early has been a point of emphasis for refs. They can always reverse the fumble and touchdown, but they can’t gift a team a touchdown because they would have scored had the whistle not blown. Fans can’t wrap their heads around why refs can’t just swallow the whistle and let replay fix any mistakes.
“Patriots got screwed because of the whistle! Come on. I thought we don’t blow the whistle anymore. This is ridiculous,” wrote Giants reporter Art Stapleton.
Pat Leonard joined in, “The NFL’s officials. My God. That is a touchdown. Not hard,”
The Patriots’ offense looked far from its usual self in the first half. The NFL’s second-best offense in PFSN’s Offense Impact Metric cashed in on the Denver mistake, but has done very little outside of that. They’ll need to get going to get past this elite Broncos defense. They were fortunate to be given a lifeline by the Stidham fumble, but if the offense doesn’t get going, they’ll need their defense to bail them out once again.
Editor’s Note: This is a breaking news story and will be updated throughout the day as more information becomes available.
