Mike Vrabel follows up team’s comments on officiating after loss to Bills

Officiating was one of the most-discussed parts of Sunday's 35-31 New England Patriots loss to the Buffalo Bills. Both calls and non-calls were the point of debate.

The job of the crew led by 24-year veteran official John Hussey drew comments from players and coaches after the game. During his Monday press conference, head coach Mike Vrabel further weighed in on the officiating, and how it can become a coaching point in games like that.

"There's nothing that we can do. They see what they see. They call it the best that they can. I'm confident in that," Vrabel said. "We have to know what it is that they're looking for to call penalties. They have mechanics that they're looking for, we have to understand that and we have to play to that. No more, no less."

At the end of his answer, Vrabel added an important qualifier.

"Officiating or the penalties weren't the reason that we lost the game," he said, of the game that saw the Patriots blow an early 21-0 lead and 24-7 halftime lead.

In total the Patriots were called for seven penalties in the game. That's just one above their season average but the penalties came at costly points in the game. Five were on third or fourth downs and two on kickoffs, one of which extended an already long return by the Bills and another which wiped out a long return by the Patriots.

After penalties were an issue for the Patriots early in the season, they had settled down in recent weeks in terms of volume. After Sunday's game they are the 12th-least penalized team in the league, averaging 6.3 per game.