I mean I give zero shits about the Patriots, positive or negative. Don't really care about pro sports at all, except for hockey. If anything, I have significant rooting interest towards the Patriots due to my office fantasy league where I have Tom Brady and Dion Lewis in our "playoff round" and hundreds of bucks on the line.
As a neutral observer, I thought the Jaguars didn't get a single break from the officials all game. I thought the Patriots got multiple. Which comes with home field advantage (that they earned) and incompetent officiating (that they didn't earn). Incompetent officiating could be corruption or a simple lack of aptitude... from stories I've heard in CFB I basically assume the worst whenever something looks fishy, but that probably doesn't apply to the NFL. With that said, there is obvious motive to keep Jacksonville out of the SB for a team in a large media market, so it really wouldn't surprise me.
But anyone who sits there and acts like that game was called even almost surely has to be biased. That PI at the end of the first half was comical. The lack of holding call on the game icing run was as bad as it gets. They coach players on those kinds of plays to hold and force the refs to make a call because the yardage doesn't really hurt you and if you get away with it then you get a W... which is what happened. I reffed basketball for a long time and we called that "swallowing your whistle" when you should make a call but given the moment you don't want to... that was the football equivalent.
No, the refs aren't "why" New England won but goddamn I honestly cannot believe anyone is defending that performance from the zebras.
