By now, it is no secret that the Patriots were not exactly happy with the wildly inconsistent performance of the referees in the Week 6 win over the Saints. Two pass interference calls against star receiver Stefon Diggs stood out, but one in particular was bizarre: the first-quarter blocking downfield penalty that was far removed from the action of the play itself, which resulted in a Pop Douglas touchdown.
Late flags happen, of course, but the flag on that play was so late that both teams already had their special teams units on the field by the time the call was made and the Douglas touchdown negated. As NFL insider Jordan Schultz wrote on Twitter/X, “The offensive PI in Patriots-Saints is blasphemous.”
The good news was that, six plays later, the Patriots scored anyway on a Drake Maye touchdown to Kayshon Boutte. But the fact that the Douglas call was made remains perplexing–or as Patriots coach Mike Vrabel saw it, “comical.”
Mike Vrabel Wants Patriots to Be Aggressive
When he addressed the call on Sunday afternoon after the game, Vrabel had not fully digested the play, or the other very questionable pass-interference call against Diggs that came in the fourth quarter.
“I don’t have much, they see something and we’ll continue to play aggressive,” Vrabel said at the time. “We have to clean some of those penalties up but those live-ball fouls that we talked about in that situation, we want to be really aggressive. … We’ll remain aggressive and certainly, that was what they felt like they saw.”
But on Monday, back home in Foxborough, Vrabel was more than a little skeptical of the refereeing display. Speaking on “The Greg Hill Show” on WEEI in Boston, Vrabel called NFL’s officiating, “comical.”
“There’s not much—it becomes comical at a point,” he said during the morning interview.
(Photo by Kenneth Richmond/Getty Images)Demario Douglas #3 of the New England Patriots catches the ball during the first quarter in the game against the New Orleans Saints at Caesars Superdome on October 12, 2025 in New Orleans.
Mike Vrabel: ‘Did They Even Watch the Video?’
Vrabel explained that the league sends out officiating videos each week, and said he carefully reviews them along with assistant John “Stretch” Streicher. But he is not so sure the referees themselves watch the videos.
“They send these videos out every week, and they do a great job. (NFL head of officials) Walt Anderson does a great job, (officiating vice president) Ramon George does a great job, and they send these videos out. Of course, me and Stretch, we hang on to every word. And then I will see something in the game and I will be like, ‘Did they even watch the video?’
“Me and Stretch are just like, we’re like, pausing it and rewinding it. ‘My God, I love these videos.’ But then I am like, ‘Hey, did you watch the video last week, they talked about this exact thing?’”
Patriots Got Explanation From Game Referee
After the game, referee Adrian Hill was asked about the play in a pool report.
His explanation: “On that play, we ruled blocking downfield by No. 8 (Diggs), early during the play. So, if there is a situation where a player blocks downfield, it’s not a foul until a pass is thrown, so you kind of put that in the bank. And then the pass was thrown downfield later, that created the offensive pass interference.”
Hill was asked to explain the timing of the penalty call, and why it came so late after the supposed infraction.
He said: “The official was processing the play and then he came to me over the O20 (official-to-official communications system). Because it was a long-developing play, he had to rewind back to what happened at the beginning of the play, and process that.”
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