NFL says controversial penalties against Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes were called correctly

As the Kansas City Chiefs picked up another win over the Houston Texans on Saturday, the story was once again focused on the officiating. As has been the case throughout the season, the Chiefs benefited from a pair of controversial penalties called against Houston.

On Saturday, it was Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes who drew the most penalties, racking up more unnecessary roughness and roughing the passer calls that raised a few eyebrows. ESPN analyst Troy Aikman was vocally angry about the calls during the broadcast; Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said going into the game that it would be “us vs. everybody,” and lumped the refs with that statement.

On Sunday, however, the NFL said they got the calls right.

NFL rules analyst Walt Anderson, a former referee who is now a communications liaison for the league, went on NFL GameDay Sunday morning to talk about the controversial calls.

The first call Anderson talked about was a roughing the passer call in the first quarter. During the third-down play, Mahomes was tackled by Houston defensive end Will Anderson Jr. right after releasing the ball. The penalty gave the Chiefs 15 yards and a first down on a drive that eventually resulted in a field goal.

Anderson said the reason for the call was based on the fact that Mahomes’ head moved slightly on the tackle, indicating contact with his helmet.

“If there’s contact with the boss of the quarterback, it’s probably going to be called by the officials,” Anderson said.

Anderson said Response Assistant can only be used if there is no contact with the helmet; since Mahomes’ helmet was hit, the officials could not use replay assist to confirm whether the contact was forced.

“You may end up having to discuss whether you felt it was coercive or not, and that will be one of the conversations the competition committee will have to consider next year,” Anderson said.

The rules analyst added that it is one of the only offenses where referees are instructed to call the penalty “when in doubt”.

“They want to protect the quarterbacks,” Anderson said of the officials.

Anderson also addressed an unnecessary roughness call in the third quarter in which Mahomes had a late wear and caused two Texans to collide with each other. “Whether it looks like it or not, officials have to call it based on what they see,” Anderson said.

Anderson said when the helmet of Texans linebacker Henry To’oTo’o grazed the top of Mahomes’ helmet while he was already on the ground, that was enough to call the penalty. The severity of the helmet-to-helmet contact doesn’t matter.

“Even if replay assist could help with that when there’s contact like that, it’s not going to be changed,” Anderson said.

Going forward, Anderson said the goal of improving officiating was to make the game better, rather than perfect.

“This is one of the areas that will also be debated in terms of what is coercive, what is not,” Anderson said. “But the game is never going to be perfect, and one thing we don’t want to do is let perfect be the enemy of good … In the areas that are gray and debatable, we have to leave them on the field.

Anderson added that the expansion of when umpires can use answering assistance will be addressed by the league in the offseason.