Patrick Mahomes is aware of the discourse around the penalties he can draw. He doesn’t plan on changing much.
The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback has taken the baton from Tom Brady as it relates to officiating. With all the success Mahomes has had, any debatable flags that go in his favor tend to be viewed nationally as preferential treatment of a star player.
Mahomes drew a pair of roughing the passer penalties in the 23-14 Divisional Round win over the Houston Texans. One came after Mahomes released a pass in the first quarter, with Will Anderson Jr. getting whistled after what seemed to be head-to-head contact with Mahomes. The second, an unnecessary roughness flag, came in the third quarter, when Mahomes slid late as Folorunso Fatukasi and Henry To'oTo'o converged on him.
Although camera angles looked like Fatukasi and To’oTo’o had collided with one another, To’oTo’o was whistled for hitting Mahomes late. NFL rules analyst Walt Anderson a day later defended the calls.
Mahomes on Tuesday responded to the reality that officiating controversies tend to follow him in his weekly interview with Carrington Harrison on The Drive.
“I’ve kind of learned that no matter what happens during the game, something is going to come out about (the officials) if you win, if you continue to win. I don’t really pay attention to it,” Mahomes said. “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 were calls here and there that people didn’t agree with, but at the same time I think there were a lot of other plays that really decided the outcome of that football game.”
To Mahomes’ point, it’s not as though the Texans didn’t have their chances or share of self-inflicted wounds. The offensive line let C.J. Stroud get sacked eight times, Ka’imi Fairbairn missed a PAT, a 55-yard attempt and had another field goal attempt blocked – part of a larger special teams meltdown Saturday.
Ironically, Mahomes thought the one time he might have overdone things didn’t end up getting whistled at all.
“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. The ref saw it and didn’t throw a flag, I understood it immediately and know that I probably shouldn’t have done that.
“But at the same time, the one everyone is talking about where I fell down, I was just trying to get out of the way from getting smoked by the defensive lineman running. So, I’ll try to keep doing that and not take those hits, because that’s a smart way to stay in the football game.”