FOXBORO, Mass. — It looked like for a second the New England Patriots got a key third-down stop on Houston’s first drive of the game to limit the Texans to a field goal.
But then came the yellow piece of laundry that was all too problematic for the Patriots on Sunday.
This time, though, the Patriots had every right to be upset with the call. Safety Marte Mapu was flagged for defensive pass interference on tight end Dalton Schultz, even though Schultz initiated all the contact. The penalty gave the Texans a new set of downs and they found the end zone two plays later on a 2-yard touchdown pass from C.J. Stroud to Tank Dell to take a 7-0 lead.
Mapu told NESN.com following New England’s 41-21 loss at Gillette Stadium that he was surprised by the call, but didn’t criticize the official for throwing the flag.
“Initially I didn’t know what the flag was for,” Mapu said. “And then fast forward, he told me it was on me. I can’t really control that. Just kind of got to suck it up, pause and then move forward.”
First-year Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo said the team goes over referee crews the night before a game and what penalties they are most likely to call.
Mapu, who talked with the referee after the play to get an explanation, knew from that meeting that Ron Torbert’s group of officials liked to call pass interference and blamed himself for being in that position.
“I had asked him and he said, ‘I was holding and then when the ball was thrown, I went to go play the ball.’ But that’s the reason he threw DPI on me,” Mapu said. “That’s their tendency. You kind of get an introduction for the crews ahead of time. That’s what he saw. I knew that they call DPI a lot. So, that’s on me.”
The Patriots as a whole struggled with penalties. They were called for nine infractions, including another critical pass interference call on third down on Marcus Jones to extend Houston’s second drive of the game.
The undisciplined play only added to a rough defensive performance for the Patriots.
“Not really discouraging, it’s more disappointing because we hold ourselves to a higher standard,” Mapu said of the penalties. “However they call it, we just got to do business as business is being done. When it came up, like for me, we know they call DPI a lot, so I shouldn’t even have put myself in that position. We’ll see the tape and there’s probably going to be something that I could have done to alleviate the stress on the ref calling that call.”
