Tom Brady Comments on Rob Gronkowski Injury, Officiating During Broncos Loss

At multiple points in Sunday's 30-24 overtime loss to the Denver Broncos, Tom Brady appeared visibly upset with the officiating. Given time to reflect, Brady did not appear any happier Monday morning.  

The New England Patriots quarterback appeared on WEEI's Dennis and Callahan Show (via Patriots.com) and expressed his frustration with the officiating, particularly offensive pass interference calls against tight end Rob Gronkowski.

"They just feel like there's a push off," Brady said, per Rich Hill of Pats Pulpit. "It's obviously different than what I saw, because I'm looking at it too, but they're the ones with the flags and they throw it. You hate to see it come down to stuff like that, but there were a lot of plays last night that just didn't necessarily end up the way we would have hoped and there were a lot of things that we could have done better."

Gronkowski was flagged twice for offensive pass interference Sunday, though one was called back due to offsetting penalties. It's been a running theme throughout the season, as Gronk has been called five times for OPI this season.

"I'm not doing anything wrong," Gronkowski said earlier this month, per Mike Reiss of ESPN.com. "I'm playing football...I'm not changing my style."

Brady backed up Gronk's assessment of his play, indicating he doesn't see anything amiss when watching film. 

"Yeah, there's nothing he can do," Brady said of Gronkowski, per Hill. "The alternative is just to run down the field and make no contact, but let them contact you, and then they can obviously contact you within five yards of the line of scrimmage, but if you're on offense you can't contact anyone within five yards of the line of scrimmage. I don't fully understand it...it doesn't look like [Gronkowski's] doing a lot of pushing."

Unfortunately for the Patriots, it's possible the team will be without Gronkowski. The All-Pro suffered a knee injury in the fourth quarter against Denver and was carted off of the field. While there has been no formal diagnosis, Brady seemed to indicate the 26-year-old would miss at least some time.

"Hopefully he'll be back at some point, so we'll see," Brady said. "I'm not sure. They've got to do a lot of things today, but it's hard to see him go down like that."

Brady did indicate, however, that he was a little more positive on Gronkowski's outlook after seeing him after the game. ESPN.com's Adam Schefter reported the team thinks he's going to be "OK," but there is no formal timetable.

The Patriots have already lost running back Dion Lewis and wideout Julian Edelman to long-term injuries and played without Danny Amendola this week. Losing Gronkowski would only further deplete an offense that didn't have especially great skill-position talent heading into this season. Brady has long been a miracle worker, but New England better hope Gronk is back and ready for the stretch run of 2015 if it wants to repeat as champs. 

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.