The Chiefs Get Called Out
You all probably knew a comic about this was coming the instant the play happened. That ending might be this year’s version of the Jacobi Lateral from last year.
Before I get snarky and we all get our yucks in at the Chiefs, I want to start by being as fair as I can to the situation.
We know Mahomes is a passionate guy who wears his emotions on his sleeves. Him going on rants about how bullshit it was and affecting Travis Kelce’s Hall of Fame resume was mighty silly but He just lost a closely contested game against a rival thanks to a minor penalty negating one of the coolest plays of the year. Of course he’s going to be mad about it, and of course he’s going to go on an emotional tirade. He’s going to blame the officiating because he’s not an asshole who will throw his idiot teammate under the bus.
Mahomes isn’t wrong when he complains about the inconsistency of the officiating this year and every year. People already found multiple other examples of similar offsides not being called. Dan Orlovsky did a deep dive on Toney’s snaps during the game and Kadarious Toney is a serial line crosser. Toney repeatedly skirting the rules lends some credence to Mahomes’s cries about inconsistency. When Toney is always kinda crossing the threshold, it feels bad to only call him on it for that one play at the end of the game. The officiating has stained so many games this season, last season, last years worth of seasons, and it is only getting worse. I understand why Mahomes is mad. I understand why he went on a rant. I also thought that play was the coolest shit, and I’m sad we didn’t get to have it count.
Okay, that’s enough being fair, let’s clown on these whiney babies.
IF YOU LINED UP RIGHT IN THE FIRST PLACE THEY’D HAVE NO REASON TO CALL ANYTHING YA FUCKIN DOPES. Toney was offsides. The flag was thrown well before all the cool shit even happened. Toney should maybe learn how to fucking line up properly. A lot has been made about refs letting players know if they are offsides in games, which is a much more common occurrence than any of us realized. WRs usually check in with refs and refs will give them a signal if they look off. Toney never checked in. This is basic shit, and well, Toney is not known for being a smart guy who puts the work in. He’s a clown. I’m glad he helped beat the Eagles and I have zero regrets that the Giants ditched his fucking ass. Fuck that guy. I got so damn tired of all these NFL analysts and dipshits talking about Toney like the Giants let Michael Jordan go last year that watching him suck harder than a black hole this year and have his hype vanish into a puff of smoke has been exceptionally cathartic.
How hard is it to line up right as a WR?!?! You don’t need those extra 6 inches out there, that slight edge matters to a lineman who encounters contact within half a second but a WR being 6 inches further back basically affects nothing about the upcoming play. Should be one of the easiest things to do right.
It is aggravating that for all the terrible mistakes the officials have made all year, the one that a team finally explodes on and pushes back dramatically on is one of the few cases where the refs got it right. Where was this ranting and raving and bitching about the missed DPI last week? These officials and the NFL deserve the scrutiny, and the embarrassment they are giving the game on a weekly basis, but not for this! They got this right! The dipshit was offsides! It’s not the first time a player being offsides ruined a Chiefs win, Mahomes should be personally offended by anyone being offsides at any time. Going after the officials for this one just makes you look like a rube!
On top of all of this is the fact that this is the fucking Chiefs of all teams complaining about it. THE CHIEFS! Have you seen how many favorable bad calls the Chiefs get? Hell, just before the missed DPI last week, the Packers got called on a terrible roughing call on a clean hit on Mahomes out of bounds. It’s not the first time Mahomes has benefitted from that and it won’t be the last. The Chiefs won the Super Bowl last year after an extremely similar situation to this one that went in their favor: Bradberry getting called for a (fair) hold on a late game play that had been mostly ignored all game. The Eagles didn’t act like this after they lost that much more important game. Mahomes gets all the superstar calls. He bitches for them all the time. He’s right, the refs are woefully inconsistent and need to be held accountable, it’s just most of the time they go in his favor anyway so now that they didn’t he’s big mad.
This little temper tantrum, emotional guy or not, is embarassing. Him acting like a baby in the post-game press conference and ranting like a weeny to Josh Allen in the postgame handshake is hilarious. Peak Whiney Baby shit.
I like Patrick Mahomes. He’s fun to watch play football. I still find him far more entertaining than I ever found Tom Brady on the field. Of course I’m also somewhat sick of him but that’s to be expected when you are so overexposed to his presence. I wish he could use that power he wields as the ambassador of the brand to attack the league on a better foundation than his idiot teammate being blatantly offsides and getting called on it. They’d never rip a teammate publicly but I hope, I PRAY, that Toney got read the riot act after that game ended in the locker room. He’s the one everyone should be mad at.
TL:DR: lmao Toney you dunce
Good callouts. Mahomes is so used to getting calls in his favor. Officiating has gotten much worse, but also much more visible. With HD instant replays we now get to see when the refs get the calls wrong. I know the NFL won’t do it because they don’t want transparency, but I loved how the AFL did it back in 2020 with the sky judge reviewing calls while being miced up. It was great to hear him and the ref talk through the play and why they made the call they did. The NFL not doing that only helps the people claiming the NFL is rigged and in bed with Vegas.
I will say that this play speaks to a larger issue with football in general. It feels like every time something cool happens, you just wait for the penalty to eliminate it.
I really dislike that penalties remove the entire play from having existed. I feel like there should be levels of error where a small infraction just takes away 5 yards, but a big infraction eliminates play and takes away 5 yards.
That said, something funny happening to the chiefs is always a good thing. Just shake it off 😀
There really isn’t another option though since you can argue the illegal action caused a play to go the way it did. The Chiefs shouldn’t get a touchdown because the infraction was minor. A big run play may not happen if not for that hold, etc. Negating the play is kind of a necessary evil.
Then they should stop play the moment the infraction is committed. If it ends up being a bad call, grant the team that got screwed a certain number of yards and a first down. Basically, penalize the refs for screwing up.
*THIS*
Though I’d hate seeing some of the cool “Free plays” that happen when the defense is offsides and the ball is snapped anyway, the way to make this more fair and consistent is to stop the play when it occurs this early. Of course you can’t always stop it when PI/holding takes place, but whenever possible, stop it the minute a “wipe out this play entirely” penalty occurs.
Also, this NOT the same as the “if a fumble happens, let it play out and then use replay”. This is “a penalty happened at the time of the snap, or so quickly after, that we can stop the play from ever happening in the 1st place”.
And yeah, the Chiefs were wrong and the call was right here. But that doesn’t mean the NFL shouldn’t be proactive about preventing this situation.
Couple things I want to add:
There is actually a vid of toney checking…before he even got set lmao. He just looked over to the ref like “you got me right? Thanks” while he’s STILL MOVING. dunce move.
Mahomes at least did apologize afterward, esp to josh allen for being salty towards him. So that was nice.
I remember after last year’s Super Bowl, I went on a whole spiel about how the refs tend to insert themselves into games in huge moments and it ruins the overall quality of said games. I was rightfully told that you can’t call for refs to ignore fouls because of “the moment”, and I realized how insane of an argument that actually is, even if it was for a more subjective call like Defensive Holding.
So hearing Mahomes unironically make this point for a penalty like offsides, which was about as obvious as it gets, was baffling. Like dude, you literally just won a Super Bowl because of the referees correctly calling a hold a hold. You of all people cannot be the one sit up there and attempt to make that point. It’s beyond tone-deaf and no one is going to take you seriously at all.
Love the post, the only thing I would change is taking out “serial line crosser” and putting in its place, “habitual line stepper”. We must honor Charlie Murphy at every opportunity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9yQq4NxyOE
Mahomes is right though, there is tons of blatant inconsistency with reffing in the league now. Like how Jawaan Taylor would false start every play and the refs never called it or when they didn’t call a delay of game penalty on the Chiefs and it cost the Broncos a win, or when they didn’t call it when Chris Jones tripped Josh Allen in that very game! Or any of the ones documented in this twitter thread: https://twitter.com/MileHighMims/status/1734061709030216133
Don’t forget in Eagles games there are usually 2-3 egregious no-calls per game on eagles players. Like the one where Josh Allen got obliterated in a clear roughing penalty.
Yeah, that’s what made Patrick bitching to Josh even funnier, Josh had that look on his face like “Dude, I got horse collared so hard my fucking jersey got ripped and the ref just acted like nothing happened.” It’s like seeing a rich pampered Karen complain that they’re out of Kendall Jackson Chardonnay at her favorite brunch place.
Delay of game is the best example of stupid reffing procedure. They’ve got to see the clock hit zero then look at the ball and maybe consider tossing a flag? That’s a sad level of precision in a sport that has HD replays and will use multiple camera angles to determine a guy is an inch shy of a first down. Is it so hard for the ref watching the ball to wear an earpiece that beeps when the clock hits 00? Problem solved.
6 inches offsides is awefully generous. Try 2 feet.
Well one foot was definitely out of line. *yuk yuk yuk*
I still remember how the Jets got jobbed against the Chiefs.
Wait ‘til they play the Eagles. If Duane Heydt is on the officiating crew, Watch the fuck OUT.
Point for the Evil Empire, Belichick and Brady would have been screaming at the receiver if this happened to them.
QBs should not be allowed to complain about any calls. Mahomes put a bit of a tint on his good reputation by acting like a crybaby.
The other part that cracks me up about all this is this play did not end the game at all. In fact, following this it was 2nd and 15. And the chiefs just turned into pudding and folded when they only needed a field goal
Bills fan disclaimer:
Dave nailed it. I completely agree. There currently is no accountability and transparency in officiating and it’s deciding games in big momsnts.The Bills fans more than most would like a word about ticky tack penalty calls that affect scoring/games at the end of the half/game:
That game the Bills are running hurry up to get into field goal range at the end of the half with no timeouts. They get to the line and the play gets called dead while officials debate the spot. They decide the Bills didn’t get a first down (ok) but because of the review the Bills lose 10 seconds.
-Bills get utterly jobbed in the Eagles game in the first half. The Eagles drop the ball and it gets called a fumble on the field but gets reversed. Would have won the game
-12 men on the field on a missed Broncos kick. Would have been a win
So Chiefs fans, don’t come crying to the Bills about it.
Broncos fan disclaimer:
I agree with you on all of those except the last one. Sorry, but 12 men on the field is not a ticky-tack penalty, that’s absolutely something that could’ve effected the play.
Thank you for beating the Chefs though, that was pretty dope.