At the beginning of the 4th quarter, the New England Patriots were struggling against the Jaguars 3rd ranked defense while trailing 20 – 10 in the AFC Championship game. Therefore, Bill Belichick and friends resorted to some trickery to gain some momentum. Tom Brady threw a lateral to wide receiver Danny Amendola then he passed the ball across the field by the line of scrimmage to running back Dion Lewis. The trick play worked, as Lewis had some blockers in front of him and ran 20 yards up the field as the Gillette Stadium crowd blustered with excitement. But the Pat’s fans were silenced when Jacksonville’s phenomenal linebacker Myles Jack tackled Lewis, forced him to fumble, recovered the fumble and began running for a touchdown with no Patriots around to stop him.
In that moment, it looked like New England’s reign on top of the football world would end. It looked like the young Jaguars would take a 27 – 10 lead on the Patriots in the 4th quarter to give themselves a legitimate shot at their 1st Super Bowl appearance in franchise history. But the trickiness would not end with the Patriots play calling as the referee blew the play dead while Myles Jack was running down the sideline. Jack was highly upset about his opportunity to score being taken away due to the unnecessary stoppage of play by the referee.
The only explanation that one could give in defense of that ref’s blunder is that maybe he thought Jack was down by contact after tackling Dion Lewis before he rose up to run for a score. However, that referee should have let the play continue then by rule he would have reviewed the replay after Jack scored, since all turnovers and touchdowns are automatically reviewed.
This play was the turning point of the game as the Jaguars went 3 and out after having a potential touchdown taken away from them. Danny Amendola scored 2 touchdowns to the delight of the refs to put New England up 24 – 20 with just under 3 minutes left. Unfortunately for Jaguar fans, Blake Bortles could not orchestrate a touchdown drive to send them to Super Bowl LII. Instead of jogging off the field like most refs do after the final play, a referee made sure to congratulate Tom Brady as he made it to his 8th Super Bowl.
But the question remains unanswered. Why Did ‘They’ Help the Patriots? Belichick and Brady has the best NFL dynasty of all-time and teams need to be damn near perfect to beat them. The Patriots need help like a shark needs help catching a baby seal! When that referee prematurely blew the whistle during Myles Jack fumble recovery return, he unintentionally or intentionally (We’ll never truly know) helped continue the Patriots domination of the NFL.