Call on the carpet
Belichick uses refs’ miss to push pylon cameras
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Bill Belichick used Rob Gronkowski’s close-call nontouchdown in Denver on Sunday night as his latest example to lobby the NFL to add goal-line cameras to its replay system to ensure officials have the best angles to review plays.
Belichick, who strongly has advocated for the use of the cameras, opted to challenge the second-quarter play where the Patriots tight end dove, extended his hands and cradled the ball inches away from the ground just before reaching the end zone. Officials ruled it an incomplete pass, and it was upheld after review.
Gronkowski knew he caught the ball and asked Belichick to make the challenge.
“We’re trying to get these plays right,” said Belichick yesterday. “I think that would have been a good example of where a goalline camera or a pylon camera would have given them a good opportunity (to get it right).”
Belichick then cited another goal-line play at the end of an Oct. 19 Kansas City-Oakland game where the use of a pylon camera was beneficial.
“In the end, it didn’t make a difference in the game last night, but had that been the final play of the game, or one of the final plays of the game, whichever side it was on, you just want it to be right, whether he caught it or didn’t catch it,” said Belichick. “Make sure we make the right call. It’s a tough call. The official who made the call was standing pretty close to me on the sideline probably 30 yards away. It was a close play. I saw it the same way he did. It was really close. Maybe the league can find a way to finance that project and get a good quality shot on some of those goal-line plays like they did in the Oakland-Kansas
City game.”
Road kings
With their blowout win over the Broncos, the Patriots tied a team and AFC record of 12 straight road wins. The league mark of 18 was set by the San Francisco 49ers in the 1980s.
The last time the Patriots lost a road game was the 2015 AFC Championship Game in Denver. The Pats are 4-0 this year and play four of their next five games away from Foxboro, starting with Sunday’s trip to Mexico City to play the Raiders. So why has the team been so tough away from Gillette Stadium?
“I think it’s just an attitude we bring, that we have as a team. We just want to be road warriors,” said linebacker Kyle Van Noy. “It shows. We’re ready to play, we’re focused, and it’s always fun to win in someone else’s home.”
Safety Duron Harmon believes the team just takes the road games in stride.
“I really believe it’s not making it any bigger than what it is,” he said. “(It’s) having some type of mental toughness, to be able to go into hostile environments and focus on your job. And when you’re able to do that, and not get into the crowd and all that other stuff ... just do your job, play good complementary football, it allows you to win on the road.”
Belichick credited the players. “It’s hard to win in this league. It’s hard to win on the road,” he said. “It takes lot of mental toughness, focus, discipline and good execution in sometimes a harder situation offensively and the kicking game with crowd noise and the energy road stadiums bring.”
The last time the Pats were beaten on the road in the regular season was the final game of 2015 at Miami.
Home away from home
The Patriots boarded a bus following Sunday night’s game and arrived in Colorado Springs, where they’re practicing this week prior to heading to Mexico City.
The last time the Patriots took a week-long midseason trip was in 2014 when they were in San Diego between road games against the Packers and Chargers.
Tom Brady, speaking yesterday on WEEI’s “Kirk & Callahan Show,” said the plan was to have a normal week of practice.
“I think it’s a good opportunity for us to be out here together, no distractions, except getting ready to play a game,” he said. “That can be a real benefit for all us if we can take care of it.”
Brady was looking forward to seeing the sights in and around the Air Force Academy, where the Patriots will be training.
“It’s pretty cool to be out here and kind of see the Air Force Academy and check out everything that it has to offer and kind of the history of this university, so it should be a really informational, learning, cultural type week that we never really get an opportunity to do,” he said.
“Hopefully we can have good practices, learn a little bit and come together as a team and go beat a really good team in Mexico.”
Belichick is expected to take the team on a field trip to the U.S. Olympic Complex, the flagship training center for the U.S. Olympic programs.