‘Monday Night Football’ schedule and results: Patriots earn win over Bills

During his weekly program on the NFL Network Tuesday night, the NFL’s vice president of officiating Dean Blandino said Watkins was never touched on his way out of bounds, which means the clock should’ve stopped running. Head referee Gene Steratore falsely said after the game Monday Watkins had “given himself up.”

“It’s a judgment call,” Blandino said. “When you look at the play, a player can certainly give himself up -- a runner -- by going to the ground and making no attempt to advance.

According to Fox analyst and former NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira, game officials should have stopped the clock after the Bills wide receiver made his way out of bounds with two seconds remaining in the game following his catch along the sidelines. Instead, the referees ruled that Watkins, who fell to the ground after the catch and but was never touched by a defender before rolling out of bounds, had given himself up voluntarily in the field of play.

“When that occurs and we deem that the runner ... the fact that he scoots out of bounds is not as important,” Gene Steratore, the head referee Monday night, said afterwards to a pool reporter. “It was a judgment call by that head linesman that he felt like he gave himself up in the field of play.

Monday Night Football has been full of controversial rulings. Missed calls have seemingly been a weekly occurrence with some possibly deciding the outcome of games. The matchup between Buffalo and New England was no different with several questionable calls including an inadvertent whistle and debate whether Buffalo was robbed of a final play.

ESPN’s Mike Tirico called all of those games and after an exhausting one in New England, he’d had enough.

Most of the time, a player going out of bounds stops the clock. In fact, the clock operator actually did temporarily stop the clock, as you can see by the fact that it stops counting down. But the referee over the play eventually ran in windmilling his arm, restarting the clock and essentially ending the game. Why?

Apparently, the ref felt that Watkins had made forward progress in the field of play. Here’s the rule on that:

The first half was a defensive struggle. Ryan is a defensive-minded coach and he is borderline obsessed with beating Brady and Bill Belichick, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the Bills looked up to the task on Monday. Ryan’s team looked better-prepared to handle a Brady and Rob Gronkowski-based offense than any other team this season, but given any kind of opening, Brady can and did take advantage.

This was Brady’s first game without Edelman this season. Amendola did his best to fill the gap and he played well. He would have had even more yardage if the referees didn’t inadvertently blow the whistle on a sure-fire touchdown at the start of the third quarter. Amendola had nobody else to beat after catching a pass, but the whistle blew and several minutes passed while the referees discussed what to do.

SB Nation presents: The Jets couldn’t keep up with DeAndre Hopkins on Sunday

The Patriots got robbed of a potentially huge play when a referee mistakenly blew an inadvertent whistle. New England fans were understandably upset by the call and let their frustrations be heard with thundering boos raining down. Except the game continued and Bill Belichick really just wanted everyone to shut up so the offense could operate in peace and quiet.

With a little lip reading, it’s easy to tell Belichick wanted everyone to just “shut the f*** up.”

Amendola got the catch, plus the Patriots got a 15-yard penalty on Ryan, but the play was dead at the moment the whistle blew. And Amendola had a loooooot of space in front of him.

To be fair, his man stopped running with him when the whistle blew. But he had a lot of running room. It’s possible, if not probable, that this cost the Patriots a touchdown.

SB Nation presents: Cam Newton dabbed all over Washington on Sunday

The dab is everywhere. Cam Newton did it against the Titans and all things dab related went wild and crazy. And if I was judging, Cam’s has far and away been the best. But then, his teammate Mike Tolbert followed suit and even Paul Finebaum got in the action. Granted, Finebaum damn near fell out of his chair trying to do it but whatever. And then yesterday, we considered it dead because ... well ... NFL kickers started doing it to celebrate.

But now? Now it’s officially dead, thanks to Chris Berman.

The Bills gave New England a decent test at home in Week 2, only losing 40-32, but the Patriots’ defense has gotten much better over the last two months. Obviously, the first thing Buffalo will have to do is stop the Patriots’ passing game.

Blount might actually get some work Monday night, as the Bills are just 18th in the league in run defense. They have also allowed 17 passing touchdowns, so don’t expect Brady to have a quiet game, either.

That’s because the first time these teams met this year, it was exciting. The Patriots won, of course, but the Bills kept it close and put up enough of a fight to make a rematch promising. But the Patriots took down the Bills in Buffalo, and if it’s possible, they look even better now than they did in Week 2.

Brady had a huge game against the Bills last time. He completed 38 of a ridiculous 59 pass attempts for 466 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. He was sacked twice, and the Patriots ran for just 56 total yards on the ground. He had a great game, and he got a lot of help from his defense.