NFL officers had been closely scrutinized for among the flags they threw within the 4 divisional-round video games that noticed the Chiefs, Payments, Eagles and Commanders advance to subsequent weekend’s convention championships.
But, it was one play that didn’t draw a flag that would show a most consequential non-call if the NFL decides to affix the NBA and NHL in severely cracking down on floppers, as ESPN broadcaster Troy Aikman urged through the Texans-Chiefs recreation.
NFL gamers might be penalized for the large umbrella “unsportsmanlike conduct” infraction, however there isn’t an official rule towards flopping, and Aikman urged the league to handle that in one among his a number of conversations with Joe Buck over the officiating within the Chiefs’ 23-14 victory.
On the identical possession the place he benefited from his late slide that prompted two Texans gamers to crash into one another, drawing a extensively panned pointless roughness flag, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes appeared to attempt to deke referee Clay Martin’s officiating crew into throwing one other flag to assist Kansas Metropolis’s drive, which ended with a landing that put the Chiefs up by eight within the fourth quarter.
Scrambling to his left, Mahomes pulled up simply as he went out of bounds. When linebacker Henry To’oTo’o tapped him, Mahomes threw himself dramatically to the bottom however did not idiot the officers — or impress Aikman, the Corridor of Fame quarterback who earlier took umbrage on the roughing-the-passer name towards Houston.
“He’s trying to draw the penalty. Rather than just run out of bounds, he slows down,” Aikman protested. “And that’s been the frustration, and I get it. I understand it. That’s been the frustration for these defensive players around the league.”
Even Mahomes acknowledged Wednesday throughout a radio interview with 96.5 The Fan that he might have gone too far with that one play.
Earlier within the drive, Aikman mentioned he “could not disagree” extra with the roughing penalty known as on To’oTo’o and defensive deal with Folorunso Fatukasi, who smashed into one another and made incidental contact with Mahomes, who was beneath them after his late slide.
When Martin introduced the penalty, Aikman interjected, “Oh, come on!”
“He’s a runner. I could not disagree with that one more, and he barely gets hit,” Aikman mentioned, noting that Mahomes shouldn’t have been afforded the additional protections offered quarterbacks within the pocket as soon as he began operating on the play. “That’s the second (questionable) penalty now that’s been called against the Texans. … It was a late flag, and it was Clay Martin who threw it.”
“They’ve gotta address it in the offseason,” Aikman added.
ESPN’s guidelines analyst Russell Yurk concurred that no flag ought to have been thrown on the play.
After the sport, Texans coach DeMeco Ryans urged that his group anticipated the Chiefs to profit from the officiating: “We knew going into today it was us versus everybody. And when I say everybody, it’s everybody.”
Yurk additionally disagreed with a roughing-the-passer flag on Texans move rusher Will Anderson Jr. within the first quarter that erased a three-and-out by Kansas Metropolis, which went on to attain a discipline objective on that drive: “It looked like that first contact was to the upper chest area. I didn’t see anything there that supported a foul,” Yurk mentioned.
Martin, the referee, advised a pool reporter after the sport that on the Anderson penalty, “I had forcible contact the face mask area,” and on the To’oTo’o infraction, when the quarterback slides, “he is considered defenseless. The onus is on the defender. I had forcible contact there to the hairline, to the helmet.”
Walt Anderson, the longtime NFL senior vice chairman of officiating who moved into a brand new position because the league’s guidelines analyst and membership communications liaison final 12 months, mentioned Sunday that each calls had been right underneath the present guidelines.
Anderson mentioned in an look Sunday on the NFL Community that it is likely to be up for debate about whether or not there was forcible contact on the roughing-the-passer flag within the first quarter, however he emphasised that the league’s rulebook requires officers to throw the flag if there’s any doubt whether or not roughing has occurred.
As for the second foul, the place Mahomes slid late, Anderson mentioned the 2 Texans defenders who crashed into one another made incidental contact with Mahomes as soon as he was on the bottom, so replay help couldn’t be utilized in that circumstance to choose up the flag.
Anderson famous that the league’s competitors committee may revisit both infraction and tweak the foundations this offseason.
Aikman, for one, wish to see the league crack down on flopping, as nicely.
