Science Proves It: The Patriots Were Robbed on That Last Play

Some things are a matter of opinion, but science is science. And today, science proves that all of New England’s opinion on the last play of Monday’s Patriots game, expressed loudly and repeatedly ever since, was correct.

And when we say “science,” we mean specifically ESPN’s “Sports Science,” where host John Brenkus investigated the controversy around the final play. As the officials explained Tuesday, they decided that the pass to Gronk was “uncatchable” and thus there could be no defensive pass interference call. Though ref Clete Blakeman initially threw a flag, it was picked back up without explanation, and the Panthers walked off the field victorious. Brenkus argues that it “would have been highly improbable” for Gronk to make the catch, but with some back-of-the-napkin momentum calculations working off of game tape (hey, we didn’t say ESPN was going for a physics Nobel here) he suggests it wasn’t physically impossible.

So there. Ha. We have science on our side. Sure, we don’t have a win. But we do have another reason to fixate on this for another day.