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Referee Gene Steratore's answer for final play in Bills-Patriots is guff

Eric Edholm

Monday night's game between the Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots was a poorly officiated mess. If we can call out coaches, players and even TV analysts, then why should referees be above reproach?

They shouldn't. And when they offer less-than-satisfactory and, lo, incorrect reasoning for their mistakes then it's fair game to go to town.

The center of many folks' ire in the game was the inadvertant whistle that essentially blew dead a would-be huge play from Tom Brady to Danny Amendola, and the clean-up act — awarding the Patriots the ball at the spot Amendola caught the ball — felt an odd concession.

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But the final play of the game, with Sammy Watkins rolling out of bounds untouched but the referees letting the clock run out, was just as bad. The explanation was worse.

Here's the seldom-seen pool report from head referee Gene Steratore after the game:

“What we had as far as the last play with Buffalo’s reception was that the receiver gave himself up voluntarily in the field of play,” Steratore said. “When that occurs and we deem that the runner, which he would have been after he maintained possession after his reception, he was now a runner, had given himself up in the field of play. Then fact that he scoots out of bounds is not as important.

"We wound the clock. It was a judgment call by that head linesman that he felt like he gave himself up in the field of play. It’s not a reviewable play. So winding the clock or stopping the clock is not something we review. So in his judgment, he deemed that the runner gave himself up in the field of play voluntarily, which does put him down by contact in the field, so he wound [the clock].”

This makes no sense. It's flat-out wrong. Any armchair football fan would know this. There should be no "judgment" from the head linesman in this situation. 

Answer this: Why on God's green earth would Watkins "give himself up?" That's the NCAA rule.

Watkins landed at the Buffalo 48-yard line, which would have given the Bills ample time to throw up a heave. And, heck, in a game such as this — replete with officiating errors — who is to say a pass-interference call doesn't give the Bills an untimed-down play in the red zone?

That's where we're at with this league: We're mad about one missed call not begeting another.

Everyone with any officiating stripes agrees. Former NFL officiating head Mike Pereira called it like he saw it, which was not good.

Jim Daopoulos, an 11-year referee in the league, also hammered the call.

So did Mike Carey, former NFL head referee and now CBS officiating expert.

It's always worse when the explanation takes a bad mouth taste and makes it linger.

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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!