It’s hard enough to beat Patrick Mahomes under normal circumstances. It might as well be impossible when he’s getting a friendly whistle.
The Chiefs have been often criticized for getting the benefit of the doubt from NFL referees. That noise only grew on Saturday in the divisional round against the Texans.
Houston has been on the wrong side of the flag all afternoon, as referee Clay Martin’s crew called eight accepted penalties on the Texans and just three on the Chiefs as of early in the fourth quarter.
Troy Aikman hasn’t held back in going after Martin’s calls, sounding off following an unnecessary roughness penalty on Henry To’oTo’o for a hit on Mahomes late in the third quarter.
‘Oh come on,’ Aikman said. ‘I mean, he’s a runner. I could not disagree with that one more. He barely gets hit.’
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Russell Yurk, the rules analyst on the ESPN broadcast, agreed with Aikman’s assessment of the play.
‘The two Houston players hit each other,’ Yurk said. ‘That should not have been a foul.’
Aikman, clearly irritated at the call, said the league needs to address that in the offseason. It wasn’t the first time the former player and longtime NFL officiating executive agreed on Saturday.
In the first quarter, Kansas City benefited from a 15-yard penalty for roughing the passer on the Texans’ Will Anderson Jr.
The hit didn’t appear to warrant a flag as there was no contact to the head area of Mahomes.
‘It looked like that first contract was to the upper chest area,’ Yurk said. ‘I didn’t see anything there that supported a foul.’
‘I agree with you, Russell,’ Aikman added. ‘From that angle there, I don’t see helmet-to-helmet. That’s a big-time penalty.’
The Chiefs would settle for a field goal on that drive, giving them a 6-3 advantage in the first quarter. Although the later penalty on To’oTo’o occurred on first down, Kansas City still ended that drive with a touchdown.
Houston has been plagued all game by special teams woes, making an already slim margin for error seemingly nonexistent.
Without the whistle working in their favor, that mountain to climb only became steeper.