I love it when people make conspiracy claims.
Do people honestly believe the NFL called down to Petey and say "hey, we don't want you to win, even though you have a ton of bandwagon fans, this is not how it was booked! So why don't you do a pass play, oh and tell Russell to make the pass catchable and not too hard!"
OR
"Hey Dan, NFL here. Listen, we know you've thoroughly outplayed NE the better part of 3 quarters. But now we want you to phone it in. Also, tell Kyle to make pass on an obvious run call on 3rd and short. Don't worry, we'll make him a heel and then switch to a 49er next week. You'll still be a babyface."