The Kansas City Chiefs were the beneficiaries of a few questionable calls against the Houston Texans on Saturday afternoon – or so star defensive lineman Will Anderson Jr claims.
“We knew it was going to be us versus the refs going into this game,” Anderson said after he was flagged for roughing the passer on a Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ incomplete pass to tight end Travis Kelce during the team’s second drive.
Referee Clay Martin told reporters, “I had forcible contact to the face mask area, and so I went with roughing the passer on that play.” While Anderson didn’t like the call, NFL Senior VP of Officiating Walt Anderson made it clear the officials made the right call during the game.
“When the defenders come in and they end up coming in face-to-face, if there’s contact to the head of the quarterback that’s probably going to be called by the officials,” he said in regard to the penalty on Anderson. “…Now it has to be forcible, and one of the things we added this year is if there’s no contact at all to the helmet replay can assist, but on this play, there was contact.”
“…You can end up having the debate on whether it was forceful or not, and that’s going to be one of those conversations for the competition committee to consider next year. But when he comes in right there face-to-face, officials are going to call that.”
Anderson then detailed the play where the Texans were flagged for unnecessary roughness on a late slide by Mahomes.
“When No. 39 comes in an the hairline of his helmet strikes the runner who is already on the ground – that’s a foul. Even if replay assist could help in that, when there’s contact like that, that’s not going to be changed by replay assist,” Anderson said.
Fans might not like it, but the NFL clearly believes the right calls were made on the field.
