KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For the second week in a row, the Chiefs were left fuming by a referee’s ruling in the final moments of a close game, but this time head coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes vented their frustrations more demonstrably.
The Buffalo Bills escaped GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium with a 20-17 win but only after a 49-yard touchdown play was nullified due to an offsides penalty against wide receiver Kadarius Toney.
“Very disappointed that it ended the way it did,” Reid said during his opening remarks after the game. “Normally I’ll get – I never use any of this as excuses, but normally I get a warning before something like that happens in a big game. A bit embarrassing in the National Football League for that to take place.”
The controversial moment took place with 1:24 left to play. Mahomes fired a strike downfield to tight end Travis Kelce, who weaved through the Buffalo secondary for 25 yards before firing his own bullet lateral across the field to Toney, who went into the end zone for 24 yards more.
Mahomes called it a “legendary moment.”
“I mean, nothing that’s not taught, something only a couple people in this world would even think about doing,” Mahomes said, “and for him to make that play in that moment making the catch, making a couple dudes miss and throwing the ball up the field to another guy and scoring a touchdown in that moment, I hope they still show it whenever he goes to the Hall of Fame because that was a legendary moment that we didn’t really get to witness.”
When Mahomes saw the flag, he thought it was for defensive offsides.
“Offensive offsides, it’s something that you – like I said in elementary school we talk about it,” Mahomes said. “You line up, you point to the ref if you’re good or you’re not good, if not they come to you, ‘Hey you need to get off the ball more, you need to be on the ball more,’ you have a discussion. That’s a ref’s job, you want to have an open discussion so that you can go out there and put the best product you can on the field.”
Down judge Mike Carr, however, flagged Toney for offensive offsides. In a pool report interview, referee Carl Cheffers said the official determined it was an egregious violation of the offside rule.
“It’s one of those things we don’t want to be overly technical on, but when in his alignment he’s lined up over the ball, that’s something that we are going to call as offensive offside,” Cheffers said. “So that’s what the down judge saw. He saw that the alignment was over the ball and that’s what he ruled on the field. That’s what he called.”
When asked about the penalty, Reid doubled down on his criticism that the down judge didn’t warn Toney he was lined up offsides.
“Normally, yeah, if it’s even close you get a warning,” Reid said. “The head coach gets a warning, I mean that normally – I don’t know, I didn’t have a protractor out there. But it’s a bit embarrassing.”
Cheffers said neither the down judge nor the line judge is required to give a warning to the receiver. He added that if was unaware if Carr or line judge Thomas Eaton had issued any warnings regarding alignment to any receivers during the game.
“Yes, ultimately, if they looked for alignment advice, certainly we are going to give it to them,” Cheffers said. “But ultimately, they are responsible for wherever they line up. And, certainly, no warning is required, especially if they are lined up so far offsides where they’re actually blocking our view of the ball. So, we would give them some sort of a warning if it was anywhere close, but this particular one is beyond a warning.”
Walt Anderson, the NFL’s senior VP of officiating, declined to comment when asked about Reid’s criticism.
“No, we wouldn’t make any comment about that,” Anderson said. “And I think you had asked Carl relative to the process of when players might potentially receive warnings and I think Carl answered that adequately.”
While offensive offside gets called a handful of times per season, this was the first time a receiver has been called for the penalty during Reid’s 25 seasons as a head coach, according to the NFL Game Statistics and Information System.
“I’ve been in the league a long time and I haven’t had one like that,” Reid said. “So, not where, at least in that kind of position there where it is not given a heads up to.”
Mahomes also argued Toney’s alignment didn’t impact the play.
“For him to throw that flag, no explanation, no anything,” Mahomes said. “I mean I saw the picture; he probably is barely offsides but for him to take the game into his hands over a call like that doesn’t affect the play at all – at all. Didn’t affect anything.”
While the penalty wiped a touchdown off the scoreboard, it didn’t close the books on a Chiefs comeback. Mahomes couldn’t connect on his next three passes, however, and the Chiefs turned the ball over on downs to the Bills.
The Chiefs now stand at 8-5 on the season and now hold a slim one-game lead on Denver (7-6) in the AFC West. The team still holds the No. 3 position in the AFC playoff picture, and while they still hold tiebreakers over Baltimore (10-3) and Miami (9-3) Mahomes and company will need help in order to move up in the standings.
“It’s going to be a great challenge for us but I was proud of how the guys played today and hopefully we can just move on and keep it going and try to flip the script on the rest of the season,” Mahomes said.
