“Buffalo’s 33% of Scoring Drives Were Aided by Penalty…”: Chiefs Staffer Presents Compelling Stats, Defending Patrick Mahomes & Co. From “False Narratives”

The Kansas City Chiefs have won 15 games in the regular season and are now back in the Super Bowl, chasing a three-peat — an unprecedented run for sure. However, critics, rival fans, and even analysts have argued that the Chiefs wouldn’t be here if not for NFL referees favoring them. As expected, Chiefs Nation is sick and tired of this narrative. Well, they should now be glad that Radio Network announcer Mitch Holthus has come forward with some solid stats that got to silence the doubters for good.

Tagging senior Fox journalist Peter Schrager and ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky, Holthus called them out for spreading these “false narratives” against the Chiefs in a tweet. According to the stats that followed, fans are being misled, as the Chiefs aren’t even close to being the most favored by penalties. But the Buffalo Bills are.

The play-by-play announcer backed up this claim by noting that Patrick Mahomes & Co. ranked 17th in percentage for scoring drives aided by penalties for a first down. In contrast, the Bills had 33% of their scoring drives aided by penalties for a first down on 86 scoring drives.

For Holthus, who is nicknamed ‘The Voice of the Chiefs,’ these stats proved that the naysayers are willingly ignoring officiating beneficiaries like the Bills to hate on the Chiefs.

“We can stay with false narratives or discuss this — KC was 17th in %of scoring drives that were aided by a penalty for a first down on such drives in regular season-number 1? Wait for it …Buffalo 33% of scoring drives were aided by penalty for a first down on 86 scoring drives,” Holthus tweeted.

The majority of the Chiefs fans were overwhelmingly in agreement with Mitch’s post. The Chiefs Nation was happy to see someone credible from the organization fighting against the false narrative.

Hilariously enough, analyst Dan Orlovsky was livid to see the Chiefs staffer tag him in this post. Because as per Orlovsky, he has never spoken about the Chiefs benefitting from penalties.

The Chiefs haters, however, were relentless in pushing this narrative. Though Mitch’s stats proved that the Chiefs barely benefit from penalties in scoring drives, rival fans argued that their problem stems from Patrick Mahomes getting penalties going their way in the most crucial moments of the game.

For them, it was never about the Chiefs getting penalties left and right. They simply had an issue with the timing.

Be it Tom Brady’s Patriots or the Chiefs today, history has often shown us that perennial winners always get the hate. In stand-up comedy, this kind of hating is called punching up — a practice that justifies ridiculing the wealthy and powerful because they are privileged enough to take it. But punching up at the bourgeoisie doesn’t make sense when it comes to sports.

Have Patrick Mahomes & Co. been lucky this year? Undoubtedly. But is there enough proof to say that the referees are favoring them? Absolutely not. The fact that they are on the cusp of a never-before-done three-peat means they’ve had luck bail them out. And that’s fine too.

There has not been a single NFL team that’s never had luck go their way. Things sometimes go your way; sometimes they don’t. So what’s the point of hating on the Chiefs when your team is fumbling in the most crucial moments of the game?

The Bills-Chiefs game, for instance, could’ve had a different result had Kincaid caught Josh Allen’s ball. Credit has to be given to the Chiefs for being nearly spotless in the last 5 years.

As far as penalties are concerned, stats reveal that in the Chiefs’ last 11 playoff games, not once have they had more penalties than their opponents. So a question really needs to be asked about how much of the Chiefs’ success is a result of their discipline and consistency than refereeing calls.