What Chiefs, Bengals said about refs’ critical 4th-and-16 pass-interference flag

Kansas City Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice stood in front of his locker and answered without hesitation.

This was about a half-hour after the Chiefs’ 26-25 home victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, and yes, he said, the Bengals certainly deserved a critical pass-interference call on a fourth-and-16 incompletion late in the fourth quarter.

“Yeah, they threw that flag,” Rice said. “Regular pass-interference rules: contact before the ball.”

It was no doubt a critical moment.

The Chiefs trailed 25-23 with 48 seconds left while facing fourth-and-16 from their own 35. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes escaped the pocket to buy time, then launched a jump-ball-type pass toward Rice downfield.

Bengals safety Daijahn Anthony went for the ball over the top of Rice’s back, resulting in a 29-yard pass-interference penalty even though the pass fell incomplete.

It was one of the game’s biggest plays. The win-probability model at rbsdm.com said the penalty moved the Chiefs’ chances of winning from 34% to 75% — the most significant shift of any snap.

“I haven’t seen the replay or anything, but it felt like the dude was there pretty early, and we got the flag,” Mahomes said. “You’ve got to give guys chances in those situations, and that’s what we did.”

The penalty is still to surely make for a national storyline this week — especially amid some outside perception that the two-time champion Chiefs get favoritism from NFL officials.

KC tight end Travis Kelce even pushed back against that notion on his podcast last week, saying, “I just don’t get it,” when talking about NFL fans who perceive the Chiefs get more calls than other teams.

So what did Kelce think about Sunday’s late flag?

“The initial play might not be there, but you’ve got to make something happen out of nothing,” Kelce said. “And sure enough, we got a little help from the refs, but that’s what happens when you keep playing till the whistle.”

For their part, the Bengals didn’t seem upset afterward that officials called the late penalty.

Quarterback Joe Burrow’s take on the fourth-and-16 snap? “Somebody has to make a play. Someone has got to. They did, and we didn’t.”

Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor, meanwhile, said he told his players afterward that it’s the type of call his team might benefit from at some point in the season.

“They are calling it like they see it. I thought they called a very fair game,” Taylor said. “They saw that as a penalty, and they called it a penalty.”

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Mahomes said the Bengals lined up their secondary players like fence posts at the line to gain, making a downfield throw difficult. He knew he would have to give Rice a chance for a contested catch.

Based on the contact he felt, Rice said that the penalty was “not questionable” and “the right call.”

He also believed the Chiefs might’ve been helped by the fact that they didn’t draw a defensive pass-interference penalty on a similar-type pass in the first half, when a defender ran through Rice’s back as he was going for the catch.

“They did it earlier in the game. I feel like maybe that’s why it was easier for them (referees) to throw it, because they saw it before,” Rice said. “If that would have been the first time that happened, they probably would have let it go, just because it was the end of the game.”

Kelce shared that Mahomes told teammates in the huddle to “stay alive” with their routes. That meant continuing to work even if things didn’t open up right away in an attempt to “make something happen out of nothing.”

That’s what Mahomes did, setting up Harrison Butker’s game-winning 51-yard field goal with help from the long markoff.

“I got 1-5 in the backfield with the ball in his hands. And I see a lot of space on the field,” Rice said of Mahomes on the fourth-down play. “Eleven guys can’t take up the whole field, so I know 1-5 was gonna find me.”