When the New York Jets went down 17-0 against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday Night Football, it looked like they were dead in the water. But give Zach Wilson and his teammates credit. They fought back to tie the game and had hopes of pulling off the comeback win late. They just needed a defensive stop to get the ball back with a chance to tie or win.
It was easier said than done to get Patrick Mahomes off the field though. That's partly because it felt like every key call seemed to go the Chiefs' way. The refs certainly played a part in how it all went down in the end.
Kansas City came away with a 23-20 win as Mahomes and company successfully ran out the clock but three head-scratching calls in the fourth quarter will have Jets fans fuming into next week.
No. 3 missed call as refs screwed Jets vs. Chiefs: Intentional grounding
The first bad call to discuss wasn't on the Chiefs' game-winning drive to kill the clock. It was on the drive before when Kansas City kicked the go-ahead field goal.
Mahomes was wrapped up by a defender when he simply tossed the ball away to avoid the sack. He was in the tackle box and his throw didn't make it to the line of scrimmage, obvious markers for an intentional grounding penalty. But the refs didn't assess the penalty because they ruled running back Isaiah Pacheco was in the area.
It was a generous interpretation of the rule that benefited Mahomes and the Chiefs offense. Pacheco was there but the quarterback had no hope of actually completing that pass. The refs let him get away with one.
Instead of facing a 10-yard penalty and loss of down, pushing KC back to the 23 yard line, the Chiefs got to kick a chipshot to take the lead.
No. 2 missed call as refs screwed Jets vs. Chiefs: Holding on third-and-long
The Jets' first best chance to end the Chiefs' drive came on third-and-22 but Patrick Mahomes showed off his wheels with a scramble to pick up a new set of downs. The problem? The refs missed a blatant hold on Donovan Smith against Jermaine Johnson.
It was an astoudingly bad miss considering the refs were more than willing to call holding on the Chiefs linemen. Jawaan Taylor and Trey Smith were both flagged on the drive. Somehow, Smith was not.
The Jets were actually flagged for illegal contact in the secondary but KC was able to decline the penalty. If the hold had been called on the offensive line the way it should have been, the penalties would have offset and the Chiefs would have had to try to convert third-and-forever again.
You obviously can't discount Mahomes in that scenario. He did it once and he could have done it again. But the likelihood of that happening was low. A punt probably would have followed and Zach Wilson would have gotten his chance to make up for his fumble on the previous drive.
Instead, the Chiefs' drive continued and another questionable call would follow...
No. 1 missed call as refs screwed Jets vs. Chiefs: Interception called back
The Jets got the stop they needed with four-and-a-half minutes to play, plenty of time to go down and score themselves. The refs simply took it off the board.
On third-and-20 at the NY 40-yard line, Mahomes lofted a pass that was intercepted by Michael Carter II. But the refs threw a flag for defensive holding on Sauce Gardner resulting in a five-yard penalty and, critically, an automatic first down.
As Chris Collingsworth pointed out on the broadcast, the refs let downfield contact go for much of the night and the contact that Gardner did make wasn't even the worst of it.
Gardner himself said he did "the same thing" on that play as every other play, per Andy Vasquez of NJ.com. Worse still, Gardner pointed out how the flag was thrown after the interception. That interception, by the way, was because Mahomes threw outside while Marques Valdez-Scantling went inside, not because of a hold.
At best, it was a ticky-tack call in a key moment of the game that absolutely didn't need to be called.
