On Sunday afternoon, the Kansas City Chiefs dropped a tough one to the Buffalo Bills, falling 28-21 — but a controversial officiating blunder in the second half may have played a key role in the outcome.

Midway through the third quarter, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was flagged for intentional grounding on a critical second down after appearing to throw the ball away under pressure. The problem? The call was wrong.

As the replay revealed, Buffalo defensive end Michael Hoecht actually got a hand on the ball at the line of scrimmage. By rule, once a pass is tipped, it cannot be considered intentional grounding. Still, the officials missed the deflection and threw the flag anyway.

To make matters worse for Kansas City, head coach Andy Reid attempted to challenge the ruling — only to find out the play wasn’t reviewable.
It was a blown call in an unusual situation — one so rare that longtime CBS rules analyst and former NFL official Gene Steratore admitted he’d never seen anything quite like it.

“It’s very unique, Jim,” Steratore told Jim Nantz during Sunday’s CBS broadcast via Awful Announcing. “We know that you can review a pass interference if the ball is tipped. In this scenario, Hoecht definitely touches that pass, and we see a receiver breaking to an area that looks like Patrick Mahomes is throwing to.

“I don’t see why we would not be able to review something there, because where this football lands is related directly to the fact that the ball got tipped. So in the area that gets moved around now because of the tipped ball, and I think that’s what Andy is pleading to with Carl Cheffers right now.”

Steratore went on to say he believes this type of play should be subject to review moving forward.

“Yeah, with the intentional grounding,” Steratore said. “You know, Jim, I’ve been around for almost 30 years in this business, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen a play like that. My question would be, though, if you’re throwing the ball in the area of a player and tipped football changed that, I would like for it to be reviewable, if it’s not in fact at this point.”

Instead of extending the drive, the Chiefs were forced into a third-and-long situation and failed to convert, punting the ball back to the Bills. Buffalo capitalized on the opportunity, scoring on their next possession to extend their lead to two touchdowns — a sequence that ultimately shifted the momentum of the game.

Needless to say, this missed call sparked a lot of outrage from fans on social media.

“If Carl Cheffers refs a #Chiefs game you know the Chiefs are going to get at least one bad call like the intentional grounding on a tipped pass,” one fan wrote in a post on X.

“I cannot stand the KC Chiefs but the NFL officiating is a joke. Look at this tipped ball and they call intentional grounding. What is replay assist for? How can the league blow obvious calls in an era of gambling discrepancies?” another fan added.

“This definitely needs to be addressed. The idea that ANY call isn’t reviewable is asinine. That said, this play didn’t cost the game,” someone else wrote.

“I’ll never understand why they can’t reverse such an obviously bad call,” another person added.

Clearly, people were not happy about the blown call.

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