NFL officials screw Patriots out of another impressive Drake Maye touchdown

The Patriots are down in New Orleans for Week 6, and their game began with quite the hot streak, as Drake Maye threw a 53-yard bomb to DeMario Douglas for the team's first touchdown of the day. This came after Saints QB Spencer Rattler had thrown his own impressive 53-yard pass.

Once the Patriots offense got the ball back, Maye decided to build upon what he did on the first drive and throw a 61-yard pass to Douglas for another touchdown, bringing New England up 13-6 near the end of the first quarter, only for the referees to throw a phantom flag to take the score away.

To make things more egregious, the flag wasn't thrown until the Patriots were celebrating the touchdown in the end zone, leading many to believe it was going to be a taunting penalty.

Instead, it was a flag for offensive pass interference, initially called on TE Austin Hooper, only to be later revised and claimed to be on Stefon Diggs. The problem, though, was that there was no pass interference, even when the commentary team tried to spin the play into looking like it fit the penalty.

The NFL really needs to get a better handle on their officials, who consistently insert themselves into games

Complaining about NFL officiating is a tale as old as time, and it's not something that will go away any time soon. Although it's frustrating to hear about, and sometimes the complaints aren't exactly warranted, in a situation like this, it actually is.

It was such a bad call that even Gene Steratore, the NFL official on call with the broadcast team, wasn't sure why it was a penalty. That's when you know it's bad because typically, they are not going to disagree with the call on the field.

Making matters even worse is the officials' attempt to make up for their gigantic mistake by flagging the Saints a few times on the rest of the drive, seemingly hoping it would force Patriots fans to forget what just happened.

Fortunately for them, New England was able to get a touchdown on the drive anyway. Otherwise, this would be a much bigger deal beyond today's game.