Everyone always wants to blame the officials but Patrick Mahomes was not going there.
The Kansas City Chiefs were certainly on the wrong end of the penalties in Sunday’s 31-9 Super Bowl LV loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, drawing 11 flags for a total of 120 yards.
Some of the flags were rather questionable, including one that played a big role in the early portion of the game.
In the middle of the second quarter, Tom Brady had a pass intended for Mike Evans tipped into the hands of Tyrann Mathieu for what looked to be a momentum-shifting interception. But a flag was thrown and defensive holding was called on Charvarius Ward for defensive holding on Evans.
Replays showed some contact and many felt a flag should not have been thrown. But the call allowed the Bucs to keep the ball and march down the field to go up 14-3.
Mahomes joined Kansas City 610 Sports Radio’s “The Drive” on Monday and was asked if that call impacted the team’s morale.
“No, I didn’t [think so]. It goes both ways,” he said. “Stuff like that happens. Obviously, it didn’t happen in our favor in this game and it’s hard to take, but that stuff evens out over time.
“I thought the defense played extremely hard. [They] held us in the game as long as the possibly could and that call happened. Obviously, I didn’t like it at the time but that stuff happens in the league.”
It was quite a different tune that what his mother was singing on Twitter, or everyone else for that matter.
But Mahomes insists morale was not impacted by that call or the officials and even said that the team felt confident they would come back and win the game when they went into halftime down 21-6.
“Honestly, we had the same feeling we always do: when we’re down, we’re gonna find a way to come back and win,” Mahomes said. “The feeling was pretty positive. I thought we had a good chance of coming back out there and starting off and trying to score a touchdown that first drive back. We ended up getting a field goal and they scored and we were just battling the rest of the game after that.”
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