Ball Don't Lie: Patriots’ officiating complaints wouldn’t have changed Super Bowl 60

Super Bowl LX was rather ... let's just say "uncompetitive". The Seattle Seahawks dominated the New England Patriots for three and a half quarters, with the latter failing to record a point until late in the fourth.

The 29-13 final score shouldn't fool anyone into thinking there was high drama at any point. In fact, the lack of early scoring resulted in no penalty flags being thrown until late in the second half. Of course, if you ask New England fans, there were a few missed calls they believe could've altered the flow of the game. If you actually paid attention, however, the Patriots were beyond saving even by the refs.

Missed penalties wouldn't have saved Patriots' Super Bowl LX disaster

New England's first nine drives ended in eight punts and a lost fumble. The Patriots were being shut out 9-0 to start the third quarter when yet another three-and-out occurred.

A Bryce Baringer punt pinned Seattle inside their own 10-yard line, but upon instant replay, fans noticed multiple Seahawks players had flinched and jumped offside ahead of the snap. No flag was thrown and Seattle marched down to kick their fourth field goal of the game and extend its lead to 12-0.

Had the referees caught the infraction, the five-yard penalty would've extended New England's drive on their own 44-yard line. But whatever happened after that isn't guaranteed. Quarterback Drake Maye was a shell of his MVP runner-up self, throwing incompletion after incompletion. The likeliest scenario would've just been another punt.

Arguably the most controversial moment of the mostly uneventful contest came early in the fourth quarter. After a first-down scramble by Maye, wide receiver Stefon Diggs was shoved out of bounds by Seahawks cornerback Josh Jobe. Diggs, naturally, took offense and exchanged blows with Jobe, requiring multiple referees and players to separate the two.

This, undeniably, was a bad example to set. Even if the official missed the initial late hit that should've been called first, both Diggs and Jobe deserved to be flagged for the altercation that followed. Particularly, Jobe could've been tossed from the game for throwing a punch that made contact with Diggs' helmet.

Maye found wideout Mack Hollins in the end zone to break the shutout, so penalties wouldn't have had any yardage impact, but losing Jobe would've impacted the already suffocating Seattle defense right when New England appeared to be gaining some steam. Still, while Jobe finished the game with three more tackles, that wasn't going to prevent the end result.

Maye threw two back-breaking interceptions on the Patriots' subsequent drives, one of which was a pick-six. New England's fate was sealed long before the altercation, and there was no real momentum to be gained from the penalties being called.

So, take your lumps, Patriots fans. Your guys just played a bad game and Seattle was incredible. Typically, the odds would be against Maye and Co. returning to the big game, but your franchise — with a record 12 appearances — just seems to never go away. You'll probably get a shot at redemption in the near future.