{"id":39884,"date":"2025-12-16T12:12:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T12:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884"},"modified":"2025-12-16T12:12:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T12:12:29","slug":"patriots-mike-vrabel-criticises-officiating-in-week-15-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884","title":{"rendered":"Patriots&#8217; Mike Vrabel Criticises Officiating in Week 15 Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_4491,h_2526\/c_fill,w_2160,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Fpatriots_country%2F01kcj6x6zea9fy3qzyrc.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-0\">The New England Patriots surrendered a 24-7 halftime lead to the Buffalo Bills to ultimately lose the divisional game 35-31.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\">An excellent second half performance from Josh Allen and Co., which saw them score touchdowns on five consecutive drives, drew criticism from the Patriots&#8217; defense. But speaking the day after the game on Dec. 15, head coach Mike Vrabel had some not-so-thinly veiled allusions to make concerning some of the officiating decisions during the game.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Patriots?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Patriots<\/a> HC Mike Vrabel on officiating in the game vs. the Bills, via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheGregHillShow?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TheGregHillShow<\/a>: <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey do have a difficult job. The consistency \u2014 sometimes I struggle with it. I\u2019ll say this: the Bills lead the NFL in offensive holds, and I\u2019ll leave it at that. That would be hard for me\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7IMSIDTJyu\">pic.twitter.com\/7IMSIDTJyu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MySportsUpdate\/status\/2000585945590993173?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 15, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\">&#8220;They do have a difficult job,&#8221; Vrabel said on The Greg Hill Show. &#8220;The consistency \u2014 sometimes I struggle with it. I\u2019ll say this: the Bills lead the NFL in offensive holds, and I\u2019ll leave it at that. That would be hard for me to understand \u2014 how a team coming into the game leading, and that\u2019s how they play, didn\u2019t have one yesterday. So that\u2019s hard for me to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\">&#8220;And they&#8217;re fine with that,&#8221; Vrabel continued &#8211; referring to the Bills&#8217; holding-prone style of play, &#8220;And again that&#8217;s how they play &#8211; they&#8217;ve been successful and they&#8217;ve been able to overcome those. That was just my point &#8211; if they&#8217;re there, call &#8217;em.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_612,w_3317,h_1865\/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/ImagnImages\/mmsport\/patriots_country\/01kcjey77hdmdcs65yx6.jpg\" alt=\"New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel\" \/><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"inline-text-6\">Vrabel on Questionable PI Call<\/h2>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\">Vrabel also seemingly had some issues with the pass interference penalty called on a Marcus Jones interception in the fourth quarter, arguing that whilst it was not a catch, he implied that perhaps the decision to penalize the former 2022 third-round pick.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\">&#8220;Whether we think it&#8217;s a PI, that&#8217;s their call. We have to know what the rules are, we have to know how they are calling it, what the mechanics are. If you&#8217;re not playing the football, the margin for error goes way, way, way down.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\">The former Tennessee Titans head coach certainly has a legitimate cause for irritation with regards to the multiple missed holding calls that could have easily had the Bills penalized &#8211; particularly in the second half. At the same time, however, for any team that gives up a 17-point lead &#8211; AKA a three-score lead &#8211; to ultimately lose by 4, it must first look in the mirror.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\">The Patriots did not execute at the level they should have on either side of the ball, despite some perhaps questionable decision-making from the referees, and that was what lost them the game.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\">But &#8211; this will not stop Patriots fans from feeling rightly upset at being on the wrong end of multiple questionable decisions in a game that could have seen them clinch the division title for the first time since 2019.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New England Patriots surrendered a 24-7 halftime lead to the Buffalo Bills to ultimately lose the divisional game 35-31.  An excellent second half performan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-england-patriots"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Patriots&#039; Mike Vrabel Criticises Officiating in Week 15 Loss - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Patriots&#039; Mike Vrabel Criticises Officiating in Week 15 Loss - Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The New England Patriots surrendered a 24-7 halftime lead to the Buffalo Bills to ultimately lose the divisional game 35-31. An excellent second half performan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-16T12:12:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-england-bau-33.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrKen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrKen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884\",\"name\":\"Patriots' Mike Vrabel Criticises Officiating in Week 15 Loss - Breaking News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-england-bau-33.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-16T12:12:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-16T12:12:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-england-bau-33.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-england-bau-33.png\",\"width\":1080,\"height\":1080},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Patriots&#8217; Mike Vrabel Criticises Officiating in Week 15 Loss\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/\",\"name\":\"Breaking News\",\"description\":\"Explore top US sports stories, and live updates\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15\",\"name\":\"MrKen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"MrKen\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Patriots' Mike Vrabel Criticises Officiating in Week 15 Loss - Breaking News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Patriots' Mike Vrabel Criticises Officiating in Week 15 Loss - Breaking News","og_description":"The New England Patriots surrendered a 24-7 halftime lead to the Buffalo Bills to ultimately lose the divisional game 35-31. An excellent second half performan","og_url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884","og_site_name":"Breaking News","article_published_time":"2025-12-16T12:12:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1080,"height":1080,"url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-england-bau-33.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"MrKen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"MrKen","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884","url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884","name":"Patriots' Mike Vrabel Criticises Officiating in Week 15 Loss - Breaking News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-england-bau-33.png","datePublished":"2025-12-16T12:12:29+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-16T12:12:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-england-bau-33.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-england-bau-33.png","width":1080,"height":1080},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39884#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Patriots&#8217; Mike Vrabel Criticises Officiating in Week 15 Loss"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/","name":"Breaking News","description":"Explore top US sports stories, and live updates","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15","name":"MrKen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"MrKen"},"url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?author=2"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39886,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39884\/revisions\/39886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}