Well, the best Monday Night Football game in quite awhile ended in controversy.

An officiating call – to pick up a flag on the last play of the game when pass interference or illegal contact or defensive holding or criminal assault almost certainly should have been called – overshadowed the fact that the Patriots/Panthers contest was one of the most entertaining games of the 2013 season.

That officiating keeps ending up in the news is disappointing. But all season long, officials have been ridiculously inconsistent in their approaches to pass interference and, in particular, roughing calls, particularly when related to helmet-to-helmet contact.

I’m all for eliminating the kill shot from existence. I don’t think the game’s founding fathers – or at least the helmet’s founding fathers – ever intended for the head gear to be a weapon. But when helmet-to-head contact is getting called when it’s actually shoulder-to-shoulder – or when the receiver ducks his head into a position where the defender has no chance to avoid the contact, something has to be tweaked.

And the pass interference rules … wow. Are they handing out different rule books to different officiating crews? The ref tandems are not even close to consistent. This brings to the forefront again the need for full-time officials.

Former Vice President of Officials Mike Pereira, who on twitter disagreed with Monday night’s decision to pick up the flag, told Fox Sports 1 in September that the rule book is too thick – well, Pro Football Talk has long made the argument that full-time officials would lessen the issues the part-timers face now.

With respect to the Monday night game, VP of Officiating Dean Blandino can say what he wants about this being a judgment call. It’s pretty straightforward to me. There was contact that prevented Rob Gronkowski from having any kind of a chance to make a play on Tom Brady’s last-second pass. A slow-mo video at Pats Pulpit makes it look to me like there were at least three steps taken by the interceptor after LB Luke Kuechly initiated contact with Gronk before the ball was caught.

Now, one play does not make the game. The Patriots should have played better, as Bill Belichick and Tom Brady acknowledged in the postgame interviews. And sure, Gronk being able to catch the ball may be a long shot. But the rules say he should have had that shot. And he didn’t. So it should have been a flag. Nobody is going to change my mind on that.

So … great game, otherwise

Beyond that, and disappointingly lost amid the controversy of the last play, is that the Patriots and Panthers played one of the better Monday Night Football games in quite awhile. The Panthers continued their winning streak and look to be a top two or three team in the NFC right now (I’d rank them Seattle, Carolina, New Orleans, San Francisco at the moment, if it were up to me). Whether they go as a Wild Card team or catch the Saints and become the NFC South champ, they’re going to be a tough out for anyone in the playoffs.

And, after falling behind early, the Patriots seemed to get it together later in the game.

I thought Carolina was the better team from beginning to end, with Cam Newton regularly finding ways to extend drives that kept New England off the field. But New England showed that when it mixes up its offense – they seem to be realizing they need to have more balance by running more than in recent years – the Pats can be very efficient.

With the Dolphins in chaos, the Bills still finding themselves and the Jets amid the ups and downs of a rebuilding cycle, the Pats are still the class of the AFC East. They’re not catching the Broncos, but they’ll be right in the mix for the second bye (I’d rank the AFC Denver, Kansas City, New England and everyone else right now – can’t take seriously Indy and Cincy until they start taking care of business against teams they should beat handily).

Sunday night wasn’t bad either

I may be in the minority on this one, but I thought the Sunday night game was actually pretty good too.

Sure, Denver asserted its dominance over Kansas City in the AFC West. That wasn’t altogether unpredictable. But I think the Chiefs actually made a decent showing for themselves.

Certainly expectations change when you go 9-0, but let’s put this game back into some context. The Chiefs were 2-14 in 2012. They had the top pick in a bad draft. They have instituted a new system and put the solid-but-unspectacular Alex Smith at the helm.

And they’re 9-1. They’ve given up 138 points in 10 games, second in the league behind Carolina. They’ve got a point differential of 94, fifth in the league. They’ve got a +15 turnover differential, best in the league. This team is for real, folks. This is a top five or six team in the NFL. They just happen to be in the same division as arguably the best team in the league in Denver.

And sure, the Broncos exposed the Chiefs a bit. But are any of us surprised? Going into the game I thought Kansas City was a much, much improved team with a great defense that had gotten some breaks with the schedule and was going to have to get ahead and keep the ball away from Peyton Manning in order to compensate for shortcomings on offense. After the game I thought Kansas City was a much, much improved team with a great defense that had gotten some breaks with the schedule and was going to have to get ahead and keep the ball away from Peyton Manning in order to compensate for shortcomings on offense.

But make no mistake. The Chiefs are better than a couple teams that are likely to win their divisions in the AFC. And that defense, on any given Sunday, is good enough to stay with almost anyone in the league.

Now, it’ll be interesting to see how they react to their first loss. Do they have a hangover from the Denver game? Or do they crush the Chargers in Arrowhead like they really should? This will be a telling week.

Eagles starting to fly

Andy Reid’s old team is also starting to look halfway decent as a contender.

Since dropping to 1-3 after allowing Denver to score 52 points in week four, Philadelphia has gone 5-2 and has not given up more than 21 points. That’s middle of the road for a defense, but it’s pretty solid when your QB is throwing for 16 touchdowns and zero interceptions. You can win a fair number of games that way.

There will still be clunkers for the Eagles, but they lead the NFC East. And a look at schedules the rest of the way shows that Philly should, at worst, be revving up for a division championship match-up at Dallas in week 17. Not sure this bunch survives far deep into the playoffs if it gets there, but it would be another nice turnaround story in Chip Kelly’s first year at the helm. I see 9-7 with a shot at 10-6.

Hall of Fame cutdown starts tonight

For those who follow the NFL’s Hall of Fame process, be sure to tune into NFL Network tonight at 9 p.m. central. The list of 126 modern-era nominees will be winnowed to 25 semifinalists.

They announced the big list in September.