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Patrick Mahomes amid criticism that he flopped vs. Texans: 'I probably shouldn't have done that'

jason owens
Staff writer
·5 min read

As usual, officiating is a major storyline in the NFL playoffs. Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are at the center of it.

The conversation's gotten so loud around the Chiefs that Mahomes was asked to address it during a local radio interview in Kansas City with 96.5 The Fan on Wednesday. He doesn't agree that he or the Chiefs are getting beneficial calls from officials that impact the outcome of games.

But he did make one surprising admission.

“I would say the only one I felt like I probably did too much was the one on the sideline where I didn’t get the flag,” Mahomes said. “The refs saw it and didn’t throw a flag. I understood it immediately and know that I probably shouldn’t have done that.”

Here's the play in question:

At the end of a scramble against Houston, Mahomes slowed down as he approached the sideline. Texans linebacker Henry To'oTo'o shoved Mahomes inbounds, and Mahomes went tumbling out of bounds with his arms flailing above his head.

In a league obsessed with protecting quarterbacks, it's the kind of play that could draw a flag for a late hit from an official who wasn't paying enough attention. Fans of opposing teams would suggest that Mahomes was intentionally baiting officials into a flag while capitalizing on his status as the league's biggest star.

Mahomes' admission on Wednesday all but acknowledged that, yeah, that's exactly what he was doing. Alas, officials weren't fooled, and the play did not draw a flag for a late hit.

But there were multiple flags thrown against the Texans for hits on Mahomes that were questionable at best. Take this play, in which two Texans defenders collided when attempting to tackle Mahomes at the end of a run:

Mahomes was clearly a runner on the play and slid at the last second as Chiefs defenders To'oTo'o and Folorunso Fatukasi converged on him. To'oTo'o's and Fatukasi's helmets collided as Mahomes went to the ground.

To'oTo'o drew a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty for the hit that made marginal if any contact to Mahomes' helmet. Here's the play again in slow motion showing that the helmet-to-helmet contact was primarily between the two Texans players.

And again, Mahomes was a runner on the play who slid at the very last second.

But the flag was thrown, and the Chiefs went on to score a touchdown on the drive to extend their lead to 20-12. Here's what Mahomes had to say about that play:

"The one that everybody's talking about where I fell down," Mahomes said. "I was just trying to get out of the way of getting smoked by the defensive linemen running. So I'll try to keep doing that and not take those hits. Because that's the smart way to stay in the football game."

That makes sense. Mahomes is smart to avoid getting sandwiched by two Texans defenders. But Mahomes' explanation doesn't address the fault of the refs, who threw a penalty flag when they shouldn't have.

It's not on Mahomes that the refs threw a flag. It is on the NFL and its officials to be better. The NFL instead defended the call on Sunday in comments from its chief rules analyst and former vice president of officiating, Walt Anderson.

"This is one of those areas that is also going to be debated, in terms of what's forcible, what's not," Anderson said. "But the game is not ever going to be perfect, and one thing we don't want to do is let perfect be the enemy of good. ... In those areas that are gray, and may be debatable, we have to leave those on the field."

Anderson also defended this call:

On this play, Texans pass rusher Will Anderson Jr. hit Mahomes in the chest as Mahomes released the ball. The crown of Anderson's helmet may or may not have grazed Mahomes' facemask — it's difficult to determine from replay. If it did, again, the contact was marginal.

The play drew a 15-yard roughing-the-passer penalty that turned a would-be fourth down in Kansas City territory into a first down. The Chiefs went on to score a field goal for a 6-3 lead early in the first quarter. They won the game, 23-14.

Mahomes, meanwhile, downplayed complaints that the Chiefs are getting favorable treatment from officials.

"I’ve kind of learned that no matter what happens during the game, that something is going to come out about it if you win, if you continue to win,” Mahomes said Wednesday. “I don’t really pay attention to it. Obviously, I’ve been on both sides of it as far as how I’ve felt that calls were made.

"But at the end of the day, those guys are doing their best to make the best calls and keep it to where the players are making the plays in the game, and that’s what decides the outcome. Obviously, there was a call here or there that people didn’t agree with, but at the same time I think there were a lot of other plays that decided the outcome of that football game.”