Patrick Mahomes feels controversies, one way or the other, are brought up when the team is winning. He stated this candidly while brushing aside the overwhelming criticism over the officiating in the Kansas City Chiefs’ 23-14 divisional playoff victory against the Houston Texans. The Texans were hit with two questionable penalties in the game — a roughing the passer call and a roughness penalty. Players, fans, and pundits alike have weighed in on the situation. And while it has mostly been criticism, Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson have taken the refs’ side for a change.
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Ocho and Sharpe stated numbers from the regular season to substantiate that the Chiefs were not enjoying any undue advantage from officiating.
In a way, they were endorsing Mahomes’ response to the controversy. The Chiefs QB recognized the difficulties referees face when trying to keep the game “where the players are making the plays”.
“I’ve learned that no matter what happens during the game, something is going to come out about it if you win; if you continue to win, I don’t really pay attention to it,” added Mahomes.
On the latest episode of Nightcap, Sharpe began the discussion by noting, “Roughing calls, per 100 pass attempts, Patrick Mahomes received the fewest.”
Johnson agreed with him, adding, “Earlier today on Inside NFL, we broke down the numbers… about people feeling that Patrick Mahomes, and the Chiefs in general, got all these calls… Come to find out, it was nothing like that when you looked at the numbers in its totality.”
Chad also pointed out that Kansas City’s offensive line has been called for the most holding penalties in the league. Despite what people may say about the Chiefs getting an advantage through officiating calls, Sharpe and Johnson reiterated that “the numbers don’t bear that out”.
The reality of officiating the Kansas City Chiefs in the playoffs
To Johnson’s credit, he did admit that the Chiefs’ opponents seem to be penalized “at the most opportune times,” always benefitting Kansas City. However, both men were drawing their conclusions from regular season stats. The playoff stats surrounding Kansas City tell a much different story.
Here’s that @ESPN graphic that @SharpFootball did a deep dive into on his site. pic.twitter.com/LWg10lh05x
— Henry McKenna (@henrycmckenna) January 22, 2025
Since 2021, the Chiefs have played in a total of 11 playoff games. Never once were they penalized more than their opponent. Throughout those 11 games, Kansas City has been penalized 36 times in total. Their opponents have combined for a total of 66 penalties.
The numbers paint an even more telling picture upon closer examination.
“The Chiefs have 18.4 Expected Points Added as a result of penalties in those 11 games. 8 of those 11 games were decided by 1 score or less,” NFL analyst Warren Sharp pointed out.
With no other team coming close to the Chiefs’ penalty advantage, speculation is likely to continue as fans have yet to be given an acceptable answer to this phenomenon. Then again, despite the disparity in penalties, no one can deny the talent that resides on the Kansas City roster.
The Chiefs will next face the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship game on Sunday. The NFL has announced that the officiating crew for the game will be led by Clete Blakeman.
Blakeman and his crew averaged 15.8 penalties per game this season, the most in the NFL. Intriguingly, the Chiefs have a losing record of 3-4 in the past five years when Blakeman is at the helm. Additionally, Mahomes has a career record of 5-6 in games officiated by Blakeman. In contrast, the Bills have a record of 5-2 with Blakeman in the same period.
It would be interesting to see how the calls would go in this match-up. With the spotlight growing increasingly larger with every passing week, neither the Bills, the Chiefs, nor the officials can afford to mess up on Sunday.
