The last time the Patriots made a visit to Bank of America Stadium to take on against the Panthers, they left cursing and confused.
In Week 11 of the 2013 season, the two teams had played a hard-fought and wildly entertaining game -- it included highlights featuring Cam Newton's ridiculous athleticism, Rob Gronkowski's strength to power into the end zone with defenders draped on him, and a series of skirmishes between receiver Steve Smith and cornerback Aqib Talib -- that came down to one play with three seconds remaining.
The Patriots were down 24-20 and had the ball at the Panthers 18-yard line. Receivers Aaron Dobson, Julian Edelman, Danny Amendola and Gronkowski flooded the end zone, and with pressure getting into the Patriots backfield, Tom Brady fired an attempt to Gronkowski.
The pass fell short and was intercepted, but soon after the play -- and the game, it seemed -- was over, a flag flew from back judge Terrence Miles. He saw Gronkowski being interfered with by Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly. Moments later, though, the flag was picked up.
"There is no foul on the play," said head referee Clete Blakeman. "The game is over."
Brady chased Blakeman as the officiating crew left the field, dropping at least one four-letter expletive that was caught by microphones on ESPN's cameras near the tunnel. Then-backup Ryan Mallett quickly followed suit and gave the crew a piece of his mind.
After the game, Patriots coach Bill Belichick said he didn't know why the flag was picked up.
New England Patriots
"There was no explanation given to me," he said. "The officials ran off the field. I didn't see anything . . . I've gone through that before. Last time I tried to ask an official a question about a call, that was the wrong thing to do. So I have no idea."
Had the flag for pass interference held up, the Patriots would have had an opportunity to win the game with one play from the Carolina one-yard line. The loss dropped the Patriots to 7-3 on the season and hurt their chances for homefield advantage in the playoffs.
(The Patriots beat the eventual No. 1 seed Denver later in the regular season, but they finished the year at 12-4 while the Broncos ended the season at 13-3.)
Blakeman stood by the call later in the night when he spoke to pool reporters, saying Brady's pass was deemed uncatchable.
"There were two officials that came in," he said. "One was the umpire and the other one was our side judge and there was a discussion at that point as to the, in essence, the catchability of the ball due to its location. So it was determined at that point in time that when the primary contact occurred on the tight end that the ball, in essence, was coming in underthrown and in essence it was immediate at that point intercepted at the front end of the end zone. So there was a determination that, in essence, uncatchability, that the ball was intercepted at or about the same time the primary contact against the receiver occurred."
The play drew all kinds of scrutiny over the course of the next few days and even provided the foundation for a segment on ESPN's Sports Science. The show found that while it might have been "highly improbable" that Gronkowski would have made the catch, it was possible.
In an interesting twist, Blakeman -- who also worked the AFC Championship Game in January and measured the air pressure of footballs at halftime at Gillette Stadium -- will be the referee for the crew working Friday's preseason game between the Patriots and Panthers.