NFL fans of the 31 teams that aren’t the Kansas City Chiefs often feel that K.C. gets some help from the guys in the stripes.But on Sunday, the Chiefs definitely got a bad break from the referee and his fellow officials.
Patrick Mahomes threw a pass that, when viewed quickly, appeared to land nowhere near an intended receiver.
A flag was thrown, and he was called for intentional grounding.
One problem: The ball was tipped at the line of scrimmage. That would negate any grounding penalty.
It was pretty clear the ball was hit. It changed its spin and direction.
It’s not a reviewable play, though. And so the call stood.
Not only did the Chiefs lose the down they would’ve lost anyway on the incompletion, but they were pushed further back.
Here’s a look, with commentary from the CBS rules expert, too:
Gene Steratore has never seen something like this in his career:
Intentional grounding was called on Patrick Mahomes here, but the referees failed to see that the ball was tipped at the line of scrimmage. Andy Reid attempted to challenge the ruling on the field, only to be told… pic.twitter.com/NWeWynyoRG
https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1985127478755496265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
That does certainly seem like something that would be simple to have Replay Assist call in and say, “Hey guys, that ball was deflected, no penalty.”
But apparently it doesn’t work like that, and it was something that went against the Chiefs on the way to a 28-21 loss to Buffalo.
