SaulGoodman

My point is that mistakes were made on both sides. It's not easy to be a ref and to get every call correct in real time. If there were an agenda to help KC, it doesn't make sense that they'd overlook blatant penalties on the opponent. The easiest way to help a team is to call the obvious ones.

I didn't pay enough attention to the spots to have an opinion on it, but if your agenda is to hurt a team, there are much better ways to do it than to short them by six inches or a foot on some spots. Especially an offense as strong as Buffalo's, which is usually automatic in short yardage situations. Meanwhile, it was obvious in real time that the Bills defender jumped offside way before any false starts occurred, yet they called a false start that put KC in 3rd and 15 and killed a drive. On another play, a blatant facemask on the ball carrier was ignored, which would have set KC up for a FG try at minimum. Instead they punted.

Which decisive calls are you referring to? Only one I can remember was the DPI vs the Bengals, which set up the game-winning FG, and that was one of the most blatant DPIs you'll see. Only one thing I disagree with here...people always focus on what happens near the end of the game, but big plays/calls are impactful and play a role in the outcome no matter when they occur. Which is why it irritated me to hear people going on and on two years ago after the AFCC vs the Bengals and the Eagles SB. Nevermind that the late hit vs CIN was clear and obvious...would the game have even been close enough for it to matter if the officials hadn't taken both a TD and an INT away from KC? No one even acknowledges that those things happened. In the SB, would the defensive hold have mattered if they hadn't made a questionable call that took Bolton's fumble TD off the board? You have to admit, Buffalo was pretty lucky to recover all 5 fumbles and have multiple INTs dropped (plus a botched handoff). What are the odds of all those things going your way? But yeah, they were probably unlucky with that 4th down spot. Maybe the 3rd down spot too. Only saw one angle of that and it was hard to tell. It was right in front of the Bills' bench though, so you'd think they'd have challenged if it appeared he had it.

8-9 bad spots for Buffalo and 100% good spots for KC? Don't you think that's a slightly biased take?

I don’t understand why people say that no big calls go against KC. The biggest calls have often gone against them. 4 TDs and 2 turnovers were wiped away by penalties in the previous two playoff runs. 0 for their opponents. Last postseason they were the only team to have a TD negated by penalty and it happened twice. In the SB, SF drew a bailout DPI on 3rd and 13 in OT. KC was penalized 11 times to 4 for Tampa in the SB in ‘21. Etc. An ESPN article from earlier this season found that the Chiefs were the most penalized team in the league in close/late game situations. Overall they’ve been one of the most penalized teams during the Mahomes era, despite having a great coaching staff that’s very detail-oriented and practices them hard. Fans claim to want fair officiating but it’s clear that’s not the case, because they don’t say a word if a call is blown in favor of a KC opponent and they don’t question calls that go against the Chiefs. It’s fair to say that KC’s had some lucky moments here and there, but it’s not exclusive to them. Look at just the last two games for the Bills for example. The turnover luck vs Baltimore and the drop by Andrews, the fumbled handoff by KC, multiple blown calls. 5 fumbles in the game and all 5 recovered by the Bills. Multiple dropped INTs. I don’t think KC has more luck than most teams, and they definitely don’t get all the calls. It’s just magnified to the extreme whenever they do benefit from a questionable call.

Dear God, people… You really think the outcome of that game was determined by a bad spot? And you think the ref knowingly spotted it short? There were two blatant missed calls that contributed to two Chiefs punts (their only punts in the game). An obvious facemask, and an obvious Offside that was called a false start, leading to 3rd and 15. Were the refs cheating for both teams? For their own mental health, people should really let go of the ref insanity. Buffalo had the ball, down three, with three min left. That was a golden opportunity. Plus, there were five fumbles in the game and all five were recovered by Buffalo. KC also dropped multiple gift-wrapped interceptions. That’s a lot of luck and I don’t think it’s offset by a questionable spot.

Take a look at this Twitter thread. This isn't meant to antagonize...just a little perspective. Not all the calls/missed calls go the Chiefs' way. Not by a long shot.

Yeah, the Worthy call was iffy. I think they just felt there wasn't enough evidence to overturn, since by the rule it has to be indisputable. I get why many think it was a bad call, but that one's complicated. He seemed to tighten his grip on the ball just before hitting the ground. Did the ball move when it hit the ground? Hard to tell. Gene Steratore wasn't sure either. Steratore did say that he thought Allen had the first on the 4th down play. I tend to agree, but it was close and you can see how a ref would miss that in real time.

I think any KC fan will admit that iffy calls have gone their way at times. They’re just not willing to admit it’s evidence of a planned agenda. Every team gets iffy calls. One can say that KC gets more than others, but there’s no evidence of that. We all know that refs have a difficult job and are inconsistent or, at times, even incompetent. A controversial call shouldn’t automatically be chalked up to conspiracy. Fans complain about calls in literally every game involving any pair of teams. In all seriousness, the most crushing and impactful calls have gone against KC in the postseason. Four KC TDs were negated by penalty in the last two playoff runs, along with multiple turnovers. Their opponents had zero of either. How can there be an obvious conspiracy to help them if the most impactful calls go against them? As an example…would the hold at the end of the ‘22 SB have mattered if they hadn’t made a very iffy call to wipe Bolton’s defensive score off the board?

In a few views, it looked like he may have gotten the ball past the line. But if he did, it was by an inch or two. These guys often have to look at 12 different views of a play in slow motion for 10 minutes to get it right…and sometimes it’s STILL questionable. Yet people expect them to be perfect on a call this close in real time? If people want to be objective, they should ask why a blatant facemask wasn’t called, which would have set the Chiefs up for a FG try at minimum. Or how they interpreted an obvious Offside as a false start, turning what should have been 3rd and 5 into 3rd and 15. Both calls directly led to KC’s only punts of the game. These were the most blatant missed calls in the game.

That's just not true. Last postseason, KC was the only team to have a TD erased by penalty and it happened twice. In the last two playoff runs, they've had 4 TDs erased and two turnovers negated. All in huge moments of close games. Their opponents had zero of either.

Aside from the fact that the poster wasn’t seriously wishing death on anybody, this is like judging Bills fans by the Kermit lynching.

Did he really say something like that? Maybe privately, but I wouldn't think he'd blurt that out to the media. I do think they'll run more this time around though.

The go-to guy seems to be different every week. Any of those four could have a big game. I definitely wouldn't leave Kelce wide open over the middle like Houston did on that one play, but that was an error by the defender. I think doubling him is a bad strategy at this point. One or more of Brown, Worthy, Hopkins are likely to be wide open.

Lol. They're showing that on ESPN now? People are sure bent out of shape over a few calls that were defended by rules experts. I think they were soft calls too, but it's a soft league now and that first one's going to be called every time. Has been all year. As for that graph, it looks bad on the surface, but a few things: 1) It's a blatant cherrypick. If they went back one more game, it would include the SB vs Tampa, which had a massive disparity in favor of the Bucs. During that full playoff run, KC's opponents were penalized 11 times to 21 for the Chiefs. Convenient of them to leave that out, among others. No one felt sorry for the Chiefs when they were hosed vs Brady twice in massive games. 11 penalties for 120 yds vs 4 for 39. One TD drive was basically all penalty yards. Where was the outrage? Now we're supposed to feel sorry for the Texans due to a couple supposedly bad calls that resulted in a total of 3 pts? They'd have lost anyway. 2) The average penalty disparity in that stretch is only a couple fouls, and the margin in most of those games is between 5-20 yds. In a few of them, the teams were either tied in total penalties or KC had more penalty yds. Without looking at each penalty individually, it really doesn't tell us much. 3) In Sharp's Twitter thread, he implied that KC got a lot of the "significant" calls in those games. He failed to mention that they were the only team to have a TD wiped off the board last postseason (and it happened twice). Or that there were two TDs negated the previous postseason, and also a negated INT. Opponents had zero of either. So, 0-5. Just a few off the top of my head from the last two years. There were plenty of other big calls against KC too, like the defensive hold on 3rd and 13 that gave SF a new set of downs in OT. I guess Sharp doesn't consider those significant? Disingenuous nonsense pushed by people w/ agendas.