Mike Vrabel’s Patriots blew a golden opportunity on Sunday. New England went up 21-0 on the visiting Bills in the first two quarters of play in Week 15; if the Pats held on, they would unseat Buffalo as AFC East champs. But Drake Maye and the rest of the offense sputtered in the second half and the defense completely collapsed against Josh Allen and the Bills would prove victorious, 35-31.

One day later, though, Vrabel is having trouble coming to terms with how the game was officiated. Anyone watching can acknowledge it was inconsistent; the officials seemed happy to swallow their whistles in the first half but were quick on the trigger with penalties in the second. The Patriots ended up on the receiving end of multiple flags at very inopportune moments, which definitely contributed to the loss even if they were not the sole reason for it.

Reviewing the loss during a radio interview on Monday, Vrabel called out how the refs officiated the game with one key stat: the Bills led the NFL in offensive holding penalties entering Sunday but were not flagged for a single one against New England. Furthermore Vrabel said he struggles with the “consistency” of how games are called.

“It is a difficult job, they do have a difficult job,” Vrabel said on The Greg Hill Show. “The consistency... Sometimes I struggle with it. I’ll say this: the Bills lead the NFL in offensive holds, and I’ll leave it at that. And that would be hard for me to understand how the team that is coming into the game leading, and that’s how they play, didn’t have one yesterday. That’s hard for me to understand.”

Consistency is a frustration shared with NFL fans. Everybody understands there will be penalties called throughout a game and sometimes it will disproportionately affect one side over another. But the NFL’s rules and how they are applied by the referees appear to be growing more and more vague with each passing game. The Isaiah Likely catch debacle from two weeks ago or even the most recent controversy from the Lions-Rams game on Sunday are both good examples of that.

Vrabel has been consistent in his messaging from yesterday to today that the Patriots failed to get the job done and the loss should be a lesson learned by the young roster. But he clearly had a bone to pick with the lack of holding calls on Buffalo yesterday.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mike Vrabel Calls Out Refs Over One Key Stat in Patriots’ Loss to Bills.

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