Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has had a lot of admirable moments in his young, storied NFL career… yesterday was not one of them.
Mahomes has led his team to two Super Bowls (2019, 2022), and has already cemented himself as a hall of fame quarterback. It’s always seemed like things have gone Patrick’s way since he took over the starting job in 2018, that is until last night when the referees didn’t exactly help the Chiefs out.
The Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs have had plenty of memorable battles in recent years, and their game this past Sunday was yet another exciting installment in the Josh Allen versus Patrick Mahomes collection. Things came down to the final minutes of the game, and with the Chiefs driving to try and win in regulation, they produced one of the most magical impromptu plays the NFL has ever seen (and it didn’t count).
The play below, which likely could have won the game for Kansas City, was called back on an offsides penalty thanks to wide receiver Kadarius Toney lining up in the neutral zone:
Toney actually ended up scoring that touchdown after Travis Kelce (Taylor Swift’s boyfriend) had the impressive sense to lateral it back to him, but because the wide receiver lined up offsides, the play was negated. The Chiefs then were not able to overcome the penalty, and lost the game 20 to 17.
It’s fair to say that no one has ever seen Patrick Mahomes as upset as he was on the sidelines. He had to be restrained from yelling and going after the referees, and violently slammed his helmet on the sidelines after failing to lead the Chiefs on a game-winning drive:
With the loss, Kansas City is now 2-4 in the last six games, and now stands at a record of 8 wins and 5 losses. They’re still on pace to make the playoffs, but it’s likely that for the first time in Mahomes’ career, the Chiefs will not have home field advantage in the postseason.
And that’s important, though all anyone is talking about after the game is the meltdown that Mahomes had following the loss. In fact, he still wasn’t over it when he met Josh Allen at midfield after the game.
This clip, which shows Mahomes complaining to Allen about the call that cost the Chiefs the game, has not gone over well on social media:
You can see how shocked Josh Allen is by the lack of sportsmanship in the moment…
The whining didn’t stop there. Head coach Andy Reid wasn’t afraid to tear into the referees and their call after the game when talking to the media, saying:
“It’s a bit embarrassing in the National Football League for that to take place. I’ve been in the league for a long time, haven’t had one like that.”
Mahomes piled onto that thought process with his postgames comments as well, telling the media:
“I’ve played seven years, never had offensive offside called. That’s elementary school (stuff) we’re talking about. There was no warning throughout the entire game. Then you wait until there’s a minute left in the game to make a call like that?
It’s tough. Regardless if we win or lose, just the end of another game and we’re talking about the refs. It’s just not what we want for the NFL and for football.”\
Needless to say, the entire Kansas City Chiefs organization blaming the referees for the loss has not gone over well online. The refs came out and basically said they didn’t issue a warning because Toney was “egregiously” offsides, and the evidence is pretty damning.
But here’s the thing, the NFL has made a point to call this more this season. In 2021, an offensive offsides was called just once all season. In 2022, just twice. But in 2023, it has been called 11 times so far, which means refs aren’t giving receivers the warnings they used to and Kadarius Toney has to know that.
The internet has called out Mahomes and the Chiefs for being “crybabies,” and has also been quick to remind Kansas City of the plethora of times the referees had bailed them out late in the game (cough, last year’s Super Bowl, cough).
Take a look at some of the best commentary below:
