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NFL defends controversial penalties on Texans in AFC Divisional Round vs Chiefs

During the AFC Divisional Round game between the Chiefs and Texans, the Chiefs benefitted from a few calls made against the Texans.

During the AFC Divisional Round game between the Chiefs and Texans, the Chiefs benefitted from a few calls made against the Texans.
Jay BiggerstaffUSA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con

The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Houston Texans on Saturday to advance to the AFC Championship game. During the game, however, as has been a trend throughout the regular season as well, there were some controversial calls that benefitted the Chiefs.

NFL defends penalty decisions in AFC Divisional Round

Throughout the game, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes drew several penalties for Unnecessary Roughness and Roughing the Passer on the Texans. And a few of those calls were definitely questionable. Even announcer Troy Aikman couldn’t hide his disbelief.

In that instance, Mahomes was running and slid at the last second, causing two Houston defenders to collide. Although Mahomes was barely hit, the Texans were called Unnecessary Roughness, causing Aikman to shout “Oh, come on!” before they’d even gotten done announcing the call.

“He’s a runner,” said Aikman. “I could not disagree with that one more. He barely gets hit.”

Although Texans coach DeMeco Ryans as well as Texans defensive end Will Anderson Jr. both stated they felt it was them against the refs, the NFL defended the decisions of the officials.

Former referee and current NFL rules analyst Walt Anderson spoke about the controversial calls on “NFL Game Day”.

This was the first call he spoke about:

Mahomes was tackled by Anderson Jr. just after the ball left his hand and Anderson was given a Roughing the Passer call to give the Chiefs 15 yards and a first down. Anderson (the rules analyst, to be clear) said that the call was correct, based on how Mahomes' head moved just slightly, which indicates there was contact to his helmet, which is why the replay assist was not used.

“If there’s contact to the head of the quarterback, that’s probably going to be called by the officials,” Anderson said. “You can end up having to debate about whether you felt it was forcible or not, and that’s going to be one of those conversations for the competition committee to consider next [season],” Anderson said.

Anderson also noted that if an official is ever in doubt when it comes to a Roughing the Passer call, they are instructed to just call the penalty, in order to protect the quarterback. That’s any quarterback - not just Mahomes.

Anderson later spoke about the Unnecessary Roughness call that had Aikman riled up. As Mahomes slid, the top of his helmet hit Texans linebacker Henry To’oTo’o’s helmet when he’d already made it to the ground.

“Whether it seems like it or not, officials have to call it based on what they see,” Anderson said. “Even if replay assist could help in that, when there’s contact like that, that’s not gonna be changed,” Anderson said.

Although he defended the calls, Anderson admitted that this is an area that will always be debated and that some changes could be made, including the use of the replay assist, something the league is planning to review this offseason.

“The game is not ever going to be perfect, and one thing we don’t want to do is let perfect be the enemy of good,” said Anderson. “In those areas that are gray, and may be debatable, we have to leave those on the field.

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