Controversial plays in Patriots-Broncos that had Tom Brady 'pissed'

Let's be fair. No game ever comes down to one missed call. That's why the Denver Broncos beat the New England Patriots and the Patriots have to first start with the mistakes they made in blowing a 14-point lead and coughing up a chance to continue their unbeaten streak.

But it was hard not to watch Sunday night's game as a neutral observer and question some dubious calls — and non-calls — in the game and wonder what might have been had things been refereed differently by Tony Corrente's crew.

Tom Brady could be seen most of the game, especially in the second half, barking at the men in stripes at some of the calls that went against New England. (And frankly, to be even-handed, we thought Brady easily could have been — without knowing exactly what he said — flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct for a few of his pouting episodes.)

Brady's anger spilled over into Monday morning.

"It was a very hard loss. I don't think I've ever been so pissed off after a loss. I think everyone felt the same way," Brady said Monday morning on Boston sports radio WEEI. "Hopefully we can use it as motivation going forward."

He continued with his frustration.

"Tough game. This one hurts," Brady said. "I think the circumstances of the game, the circumstances of the situation that we were in [were tough] — having a good lead in the fourth quarter, then having a couple huge third downs that we made called back by penalty, then losing a player like [Rob Gronkowski] in the fourth quarter, and then fighting back like we did to get it to overtime."

We looked back at some of the critical plays that had Brady and the Patriots (and their fans on Twitter) so upset, and here's what we found to be most egregious:

Gronkowski OPI calls

Gronk was called twice for offensive pass interference — once on the second play of the second quarter and again with just over five minutes remaining in the game. Both proved to be big plays.

On the first one, Brady couldn't connect with Keshawn Martin on a 2nd-and-9 pass, but Aqib Talib was flagged for a clear defensive pass interference that would have netted the Patriots a first down at the Denver 46-yard line. The problem is that across the field, Gronkowski was hit with OPI, ruled that he had blocked downfield on Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall.

If you watch closely, the call could have gone either way — against Gronkowski or against Marshall, who also engaged his hands — or, better yet, could have been a no-call. This seemed to be a pretty soft foul. The Patriots would not convert on the drive and would punt the ball away.

On the second call against Gronkowski, he catches a 10-yard pass for what would have been a key first down at around the 5:23 mark; instead, the Patriots were flagged, facing a 3rd and 15, which they did not convert.

Like the first call, Gronk is likely just as guilty on this play as Broncos safety David Bruton is on the play, and we see this type of contact 100 times on a typical Sunday — most of them going uncalled. Another ticky-tack call, we thought.

Running into the kicker? Roughing?

At the end of the third quarter, the Patriots punted the ball away — only a 34-yard kick from midfield when Ryan Allen appeared to be able to bury the ball deeper in Denver territory. Mind you, it was 4th and 8. Watch as Broncos special teamer Todd Davis makes clear contact with Allen after his followthrough.

Was this egregious enough for roughing the kicker, which is a 15-yard penalty and would have netted a first down? We say no. Running into the kicker? That's a 5-yard penalty, and we could have seen that one called — it did look like clear contact.

But even still, the Patriots still likely punt — even with the ball at the Denver 49 — given all the weapons they've lost offensively. Not much to see here, really, although they could have put the Broncos in worse field position.

Personal foul missed?

We are surprised more people didn't talk about this play. On 3rd and 15 with just under five minutes left, Brady gunned one down the field to Brandon LaFell, who tried to adjust to the pass and almost made a heck of a play. But Brady took a shot in the process from Broncos linebacker Shaq Barrett.

By definition this is a foul, but it was not called. Barrett launched himself, leaving his feet, to hit Brady and that should be a 15-yard penalty. So instead of punting from their own 15, the Patriots would be in buisiness to run more clock, with a first down at the 30-yard line and a fresh set of downs. Big non-call there.

Hold on Tre Jackson

Patriots fans seemed irked by this one, as did Brady, who argued with Corrente after the call. Brady hit Keshawn Martin for a 51-yard bomb that would have completely flipped the field and put the Patriots into field-goal range up 21-14 with 11:27 left.

But as you can see, Jackson did appear to grab Broncos linebacker Von Miller up high, hog-tying him and able to push him past Brady, although using a little too much hands to do so. We agree with the call. This was a hold in our view. The Patriots could not convert on the ensuing 3rd and 20 and had to punt, which led to a Broncos field-goal drive to cut the lead to 21-17 with just over six minutes left. 

Patrick Chung holding

This one didn't feel like a hold to us. We can get into the whole question over what holding or defensive interference are, much like we can ask what a catch is in the NFL. There's enough of a judgment call based on the way the rule is written that there's conjecture involved.

But even with that, here's the question: Did Chung gain any key advantage when he was flagged for holding against Demaryius Thomas with 1:25 left in the game? Judge for yourself.

The result was massive. Instead of an 8-yard sack by Patriots defensive lineman Alan Branch, which would have given the Broncos a 3rd-and-goal from the 15-yard line with a running clock — Denver was out of timeouts — the hold gave them 1st-and-goal from the New England 4. One play later, the Broncos would take the lead with a Brock Osweiler TD pass to Andre Caldwell.

Chung touched the receiver, with his left hand slightly clinging to Thomas' jersey, but he certainly didn't disrupt Thomas' route or stay stuck to him. This is not called in the league more than it is called, in our opinion.

Holding call missed on TD

Caldwell's touchdown was a beautiful design and execution. But did Evan Mathis hold Chandler Jones (or at least was he guilty of hands to the face) as a Shutdown Corner Twitter follower suggested with damning photographic evidence?

Here's the play in question, although it's difficult to see at live speed:

Our take: This would have been awfully hard to call in this spot. Not because of the timing of the game — that shouldn't matter. But the fact that the possible foul occurred just as Osweiler released the pass, and that perhaps the back judge was shielded on the play.

Does it look like Mathis was guilty? Perhaps. But we've seen worse calls missed.

Aqib Talib no-call

On the first play of overtime, the Patriots got the ball first and went after their former teammate, Talib. Brady threw to LaFell on the drag route, but it fell incomplete. Brady screamed for a holding call — did he have a case?

We're ambivalent on this one. Yes, Talib made contact, but it didn't appear to severely hinder the route or prevent LaFell from catching the ball. We think this was Brady's frustration boiling over, and we can't blame him for that.

"How it all played out, I guess I was just pretty pissed off, obviously the final outcome and how the last 15 to 20 minutes of the game played out," Brady said. "It's a tough way to lose a game, especially when we had some pretty great opportunities there throughout to close them out. For a myriad of reasons, we couldn't quite make the critical ones when we needed. When we did, it got called back or something like that.

"... You hate for it to come down to stuff like that, but there were a lot of plays last night that just didn't necessarily end up the way we would have hoped, and there are a lot of things we could have done better. I'm certainly not going to sit here and blame the officiating. Some days you get the calls; some days you don't. We're going to have to figure out what we need to do going forward so we don't get them."

This season has been plagued, league-wide, by questionable calls (or non-calls), especially in big games and prime-time affairs, leading to Twitter insanity and media overblows. But in this game, it's hard not to notice the rash of shaky officiating in crunch time, all bunched together, even if some of the calls Patriots fans were griping about might not hold water.

"We didn't get many last night. I don't know why or why not. You think they're looking at it, and they probably are," Brady said. "Sometimes officials miss it too, I totally understand that."

Listen to Yahoo Sports' Grandstanding podcast for more:

Grandstanding: A Yahoo Sports podcast
Subscribe via iTunes or via RSS feed

- - - - - - -

Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm