The Patriots won the big game yesterday, and notably I was proved right when they failed to cover the spread.

The game was close because the refs, also as I predicted, allowed mugging of receivers. Since we do not have replays of every receiver route and the grabbing, holding, shoving etc, I have to guess this happened. How do I know? No separation of the receivers. Neither Maye nor Stidham had anyone to throw to. At least, not after the Patriots quit playing zone and went man to man, grabbing every receiver like the Broncos must have been doing.

I will say, that the refs played this fair. Other than the obvious holding they allowed by the Broncos O line, they called the game pretty even from my observation. That is, they did not call ANY holding or defensive interference. Tried to find video of Patrick Surtain, the great cornerback for the Broncos, with his arm around Kayshon Boutte’s neck in the end zone. No call. Ho hum. Away game in Denver. It has always been this way. But mostly it went both ways.

Stidham had a few great throws early and got a touchdown while the Pats were in zone coverage. Plenty of separation, open receivers. The Broncos SHOULD have added a field goal during the ill advised Patriots zone coverage for much of the first half.

The Broncos lost partly because the NFL had gone overboard with going for it on fourth down. Teams never used to do this, unless they were behind in the late fourth quarter. Now they do it ALL THE TIME. The Broncos had an inexperienced quarterback, were holding the Patriots on D. Tony Romo correctly advised that the Broncos take the three points from the 20 year line and fourth down. Guess what? Patriots held. Game lost by…a field goal.

The only touchdown the Pats got was after Jarret Stidham, showing his lack of playing time, tried an ill advised throwing away of the ball as he was about to be sacked. Fumble recovery on the 10 yard line. That was as close to the end zone the Patriots got all day.

The Broncos defense DOMINATED the Patriots. Payton blundered badly, when his experience should have made the proper call an easy one. Kudos to him, he said so. Properly took the blame for the loss. He got caught being trendy, not experienced.

But back to the zebras. In the same stadium the week before, the teams combined for 63 points. Lots of great passes and catches. Once the Patriots went man to man, all grabbing coverage, the points almost ended for the game. Why did the refs decide to call the game this way?

Admittedly, the bad weather also had a major influence. But the refs impacted the passing game, and therefore the running game. Every play wound being a run. Defenses guessed this. End of scoring.

Have to credit Mike Vrabel, coach of the Patriots. With the weather and the referee situation, he simply game up trying to pass. He counted on his defense, which was holding Denver consistently. Thats GOOD coaching. Way to go Vrabel!

The Patriots would surely have lost this game if Bo Nix had been the Denver quarterback. He would have run wild and would have avoided the two major mistakes that Stidham made. And of course, they lost party due to Sean Payton making an amateurish decision.

No room for such mistakes in the post season.