The Kansas City Chiefs advanced to the AFC championship game for a seventh straight year after defeating the Houston Texans on Saturday.
Troy Aikman wasn’t impressed with the calls, and fans online were equally pissed watching the refs help the Chiefs extend drives and score points.
Senior vice president of officiating Walt Anderson did not help matters when he appeared on NFL Network and offered a detailed explanation of the calls, defending the officials’ decisions.
Anderson argued that the first penalty, a roughing the passer on Will Anderson, was a straightforward and justified call as he stated the defender made contact with the quarterback’s head or helmet.
“When there’s contact to the head of the quarterback, officials are going to call that,” Anderson said. “That’s the rule for this year.”
The second penalty, the unnecessary roughness of Chiefs QB Mahomes as he slid to the ground, also sparked backlash.
“When No. 39 comes in and strikes the helmet of the quarterback who is already on the ground, that’s a foul,” Anderson stated.
Social media thought the entire explanation was rigged for the Chiefs.
“The first infraction wasn’t not forcible contact to his head or helmet area, mahomes as usual sold it. The second, he was a runner and wasn’t touched by the 2 defenders. They contacted each other. Total travesty,” one fan said.
“Walt, are u covering league rules or KC rules?” another fan stated.
“How convenient the video package left out this angle,” a third fan added.
“Texan defenders: literally just collide heads with each other. Refs: “Unnecessary roughness vs Mahomes – he was traumatized from witnessing such violence. 15yd penalty, Chiefs 1st down,” a descriptive fan stated.
“Nothing to sew here, guys, just the NFL Network having an analyst to run PR cause the officiating was that blatantly awful,” one final fan said.
Chiefs Headed To Seventh-Straight AFC Championship Game
The Kansas City Chiefs are moving onto their seventh straight AFC title game after defeating the Houston Texans.
Kansas City didn’t play its best game in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs, but a few controversial calls ensured they would be facing either the Ravens or Bills in the next round.
