Anyone searching for additional evidence that NFL referees have given Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes favored nation status among all players may have found it on Monday night.
Late in the first quarter on a 3rd-and-goal, Patrick Mahomes threw a two-yard touchdown pass to Travis Kelce, who ran the ball in for a touchdown. However, there was a flag on the play. Several Chiefs players seemed unshocked by the flag and immediately ran over to argue their case for why there shouldn’t be a penalty.
However, upon reviewing the play, it is clear that Chiefs wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster ran a pick play on the Jaguars defender, and the flag thrown on the play should not have been picked up.
The rule in question is the pick rule, which states: within one yard of the line of scrimmage, anything goes, and an offensive player can block a defensive player as much as they want. Beyond that one-yard buffer, an offensive player would be penalized for initiating such contact.
Here is another angle of the play, which not only shows that Smith-Schuster did not advance one yard to contact, but also shows Mahomes screaming, “We got one yard.”
As can be heard on the broadcast, both Troy Aikman and Joe Buck, and the rules analyst, all believed that the call should have stood.
“On that situation, they’re looking at the point of contact,” ESPN rules analyst Russell Yurk said. “If the contact is more than one yard downfield—it’s not where his feet are—it’s a good call for pass interference…. I thought that would have been a good call for pass interference, I wish they would have stayed with it.”
Even former players such as Green Bay’s Kurt Benkert took to X to cry foul.
Benkert followed it up by saying the call should have stood regardless of the one-yard rule.
Others piled on as well.
“More than a yard down field, should have stood as OPI,” another wrote. “Juju blatantly boxed him out, wasn’t even running a route.”
Another observed, “mahomes legit told the refs what to do.”
One X user wrote, “Refs doing everything they can to keep the chiefs in this game. Clear PI leads to the Trevor pick. It’s so pathetic how they don’t even try and hide it anymore.”
Nor was this the only controversy involving pass interference. Later in the game, Kansas City’s Jaden Hicks knocked Jags receiver Parker Washington to the ground, which resulted in an interception.
And again, no flag on the play.
The Jaguars managed to claw back and win the game, 31-28, which is likely why these missed calls didn’t get more attention after the game. Had the Chiefs won, that may not have been the case.
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