Texans express dismay at officiating after 23-14 divisional round loss to Chiefs

Anderson was cited for roughing the passer on a third-and-8 Mahomes incompletion midway through the third quarter. The first down that followed the penalty kick resulted in an eventual go-ahead field goal.

“I had forced contact in the facemask area and then I went calling the ball on that play,” referee Clay Martin told pool reporter Aaron Wilson.

In the third quarter, Mahomes ran for a gain before slipping. Two Texans players who collided with each other also contacted Mahomes. It drew an unnecessary roughness flag and was part of a drive that culminated in a touchdown catch by Travis Kelce.

“So, (Mahomes) obviously slid, and when he slides, he’s considered defenseless,” Martin said. “The city order is on the defender. I had forced contact there to the hairline, the helmet.”

Regardless of any explanation, the Texans didn’t hesitate to voice their views on how they felt the play was called.

“Everybody knows how it plays up here,” Houston running back Joe Mixon said. “You can never leave it in the hands of the refs. It is what it is. When it comes down to it, you can never leave it in the hands of the refs.”

In all, the Texans had eight penalties accepted against them for 82 yards compared to four accepted against the Chiefs for 29 yards. The negative-four penalty margin allowed was the largest for Kansas City all season. It was also a negative-four margin (6-2) in Week 16 against the Texans.

While the Texans wrote a narrative that the flags were exclusive to their effort against the Chiefs, they averaged 7.0 penalties per game in the regular season and had eight penalties in their win over the Chargers the week before.

“We knew going into this game, man, it was us versus everybody,” Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said. “When I say everybody, I mean everybody. The nos, the doubters. Everybody, we had to go against again today. Going into this game knowing what we were up against, we can’t do the mistakes we made. We had a lot of self-inflicted mistakes, whether it was special teams not converting our kicks defensively, not covering our quarterback and keeping him clean you you with the fact that on top of everything else we have to deal with, it will be a really tough uphill battle.

To Ryan’s point, Texans quarterback CJ Stroud was sacked eight times. The Stroud-led offense had just one touchdown.

Meanwhile, kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn missed two kicks (an extra point and a field goal) and had a field goal attempt blocked.

Houston also began the game and allowed a 63-yard kickoff return, caused a fumble on the play, did not recover and then had Kris Boyd penalized 15 yards for throwing his helmet. He then proceeded to shove Texans special teams coordinator Frank Ross.

“I got fired up, I was flipped, I thought we had a good game and I apologize to everybody,” Boyd said. “I apologized to Frank. And I did again and he said to me, ‘Don’t worry about it’.”

The penalties attracted social media and the Texans’ locker room, but the flags have been troublesome all season for Houston, who had more than just laundry on the field going against them Saturday.

“I’m leaving here heartbroken,” Ryans said. “Like, this one hurts, right? Because I know we’re a better football team than we showed today no matter who we play. To go back and still have to talk about the mistakes we made and this moment , like, yeah, it’s disheartening to be here because we have to be over at this point in the playoffs, not postseason football, you have to be at your best, you have to be operating on all cylinders, and for us, we? didn’t do it today, so that’s what I’m disheartened about.”