The Kansas City Chiefs overcame both a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit and a botched facemask call to salvage their season in Week 12.
Referee Alex Moore’s crew got it wrong when Jawaan Taylor was whistled for a facemask penalty that erased a tying touchdown by Travis Kelce in Kansas City’s 23-20 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.
CBS analyst Tony Romo got it wrong, too, when he suggested Chiefs coach Andy Reid could have challenged the dubious call.
The Chiefs’ win featured an 11-point fourth-quarter comeback and a Patrick Mahomes-led drive to win it in overtime, but some of that drama might not have been necessary had replay assist been used to correct the errant call in the first place.
With the Chiefs trailing 7-0 in the first quarter, Kelce took the direct shotgun snap and sauntered into the end zone. As Harrison Butker was trotting onto the field for the extra point to tie it, however, Moore announced that Taylor, Kansas City’s oft-penalized right tackle, had committed a facemask violation.
That nullified Kelce’s TD and pushed the ball back to the Indianapolis 18.
A few plays later, Butker’s first of five field goals made it 7-3, and the Chiefs (6-5) would trail the rest of the game until Butker’s 25-yard field goal at the end of regulation tied it at 20. He won it in overtime with a 27-yarder.
Taylor didn’t actually grab linebacker Kwity Paye’s facemask, though. He got his right hand on the side of Paye’s helmet but even that wasn’t enough to merit a hands-to-the-face flag.
When Moore announced the personal foul on Taylor, CBS play-by-play man Jim Nantz exclaimed, “Wow! That’s a big one. Not only is it a touchdown-denying penalty, but it’s 15 yards on a goal-to-go situation.”
Nantz and Romo brought in rules analyst Gene Steratore, who said, “When we have a facemask we know now we can review that. As I look at it, 74’s hand is on the helmet, but it’s not grabbing the opening. So it is a reviewable play and if it’s not a grab on the facemask, they could have removed this.”
Steratore was right about the facemask being reviewable, but only by replay assist.
“Andy Reid could have challenged that,” Romo incorrectly added, “… and that could have stood as a touchdown.”
The NFL expanded facemask calls this season to be eligible for replay assist, which helps on-field officials make the right call, but that wasn’t used in this instance, so the error wasn’t corrected.
Not only did Kelce lose his 85th career regular-season touchdown but he also got whistled for a phantom foul late in the fourth quarter with the Chiefs backed up near their own end zone trailing 20-17.
Mahomes threw a six-yard pass to running back Kareem Hunt at the Chiefs 12 with just under 5 minutes remaining, but Kelce was whistled for pass interference because officials mistakenly thought he made contact with linebacker Buddy Johnson, the defender who was guarding Hunt.
Romo called it “the worst call I’ve seen all year.”
“They think he picks 53 (Johnson). He doesn’t. He goes into his own guy, who’s guarding him,” Romo said.
The flag pushed the Chiefs back to their 3, but two plays later Mahomes hit Rashee Rice for 47 yards, leading up to Butler’s tying field goal as time expired.
And after the Colts, who inexplicably abandoned their great ground game in crunch time, went three-and-out for the fourth straight time, Mahomes drove the Chiefs to the season-salvaging field goal.
Bad beat
Another curious call in Week 12 that had football fans and bettors abuzz was Cleveland coach Kevin Stefanski’s decision to punt from the Raiders’ 29 in the final minute of the Browns’ 24-10 win at Las Vegas in Shedeur Sanders’ first career start.
That’s right. Not his own 29. The Raiders’ 29.
Facing fourth-and-2 with 59 seconds remaining, Stefanski decided not to go for it and not to send in kicker Andre Szmyt for a short field goal but instead opted to send out punter Corey Bojorquez, whose 19-yard punt gave the Raiders the ball at their 10.
Now, had he not sent out his punter, chances are slim that Stefanski would have opted for a field-goal attempt given that the Browns were up two TDs in the final minute, but here’s the thing: MGM Sportsbook set the over/under for the game at 36 points. FanDuel had it at 36 1/2 points.
The 34-point final made some bettors very happy and others very upset given Stefanski’s decision to punt from just outside the red zone.
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