How big was the absence of critical flags for the Chiefs last night?

[PromoTheRobot]

Let's be honest. We've seen Mahomes get rocked in games before. What was different in last night's Super Bowl? The officials didn't ride to the Chiefs rescue. (They did once with the shaky OPI call in Q1, but gave the Eagles a makeup call.) What happened to the mysterious defensive holding calls, roughing the passer calls, defensive PI calls? Throw a few of those in last night and do we have a different game? Or did Roger get on the special red phone last night and told the refs Mahomes was no longer "made"?

 

There is a story behind this but I doubt anyone in sports media wants to dig into it.

Edited February 10 by PromoTheRobot

[T.E.]

They just got housed last night. I'm not sure any refereeing short of WWE stuff could've helped them.

[FireChans]

Shaky calls matter in nail biters. Not in blowouts.

 

if you don’t want the refs to affect the game, make it impossible for them to do so.

 

ass kicking takes the refs out of the game. It takes Jalen Hurts’ bad pick out of the game. 

[transient]

I think the outcry after the Bills and Texans games by the football watching universe resulted in the refs being put under a microscope for this game. Amazing what an evenly officiated game can do for a team.

[8BallSippin]

There were two really bad calls on each team, outside of that they let them play.  

 

The Chiefs felt very Big Game Billsy last night... lol... i very much enjoyed it happening to someone else...

[RoyBatty is alive]

There was a terrible call against the Eagles near the start of the game but after that, I thought the bad calls went the way for the eagles.  You know NFL and Officials were on red alert NOT to show Chiefs favoritism and they didn't. in fact I think they went overboard for the Eagles.

[Southern McButterpants.]

4 minutes ago, T.E. said:

They just got housed last night. I'm not sure any refereeing short of WWE stuff could've helped them.

Nah, the WWE has better refereeing than the NFL.

[zow2]

They easily could’ve taken away Philly’s second half strip sack with a straight hand to the face of Mahomes.  Glad they let it go.

[BFLO]

8 minutes ago, FireChans said:

Shaky calls matter in nail biters. Not in blowouts.

 

if you don’t want the refs to affect the game, make it impossible for them to do so.

 

ass kicking takes the refs out of the game. It takes Jalen Hurts’ bad pick out of the game. 

Shaky calls in a game that should be a blow out can turn it into a nail biter.

[transient]

8 minutes ago, T.E. said:

They just got housed last night. I'm not sure any refereeing short of WWE stuff could've helped them.

The refs could have resorted to the way they called the Texans-Chiefs game and kept throwing phantom personal fouls, roughing the passer, and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on the Eagles defense to slow their pass rush since the Chiefs themselves couldn't.

[JerseyBills]

Eagles 1st drive there was 2 bs calls. PI on big Brown catch and another penalty i forget. 

[K-9]

1 minute ago, zow2 said:

They easily could’ve taken away Philly’s second half strip sack with a straight hand to the face of Mahomes.  Glad they let it go.

They had to let it go because TWO Chiefs O linemen had illegal hands in the face of Eagles pass rushers, including the guy who made the play on Mahomes. And the Chiefs got away with fricken tackling Eagles pass rushers all night, too. 

[Yobogoya!]

19 minutes ago, FireChans said:

Shaky calls matter in nail biters. Not in blowouts.

 

if you don’t want the refs to affect the game, make it impossible for them to do so.

 

ass kicking takes the refs out of the game. It takes Jalen Hurts’ bad pick out of the game. 

 

True, but the flip is: how many blowouts get stopped dead in their tracks because a phantom call takes a big play off the board? 

 

Momentum is a real thing, and I know we've seen more than once over the years a big play gets negated by a questionable flag, the driving team gets pushed back 10-15 yards, and then the pendulum starts to swing...

 

If a flag takes Cooper Dejean's pick six off the board, you can't just say the game would have ended the same. That's a big shift in points, ball position, morale, etc.

[SoonerBillsFan]

It made a huge difference.  Sack on Mahomes, Flag for whatever. INT by Mahomes, Flag for whatever.  Touchdown for Eagles, Flag for whatever.  

 

That was lacking last night.

[frostbitmic]

16 minutes ago, K-9 said:

They had to let it go because TWO Chiefs O linemen had illegal hands in the face of Eagles pass rushers, including the guy who made the play on Mahomes. And the Chiefs got away with fricken tackling Eagles pass rushers all night, too. 

On one play I watched a Chiefs lineman tackle an Eagles pass rusher, in the end zone, that should've been a safety.

[MJS]

32 minutes ago, RoyBatty is alive said:

There was a terrible call against the Eagles near the start of the game but after that, I thought the bad calls went the way for the eagles.  You know NFL and Officials were on red alert NOT to show Chiefs favoritism and they didn't. in fact I think they went overboard for the Eagles.

Yeah, the bad calls I saw went against the Chiefs.

[NY to VA to NV to TX to AZ]

27 minutes ago, FireChans said:

Shaky calls matter in nail biters. Not in blowouts.

 

if you don’t want the refs to affect the game, make it impossible for them to do so.

 

ass kicking takes the refs out of the game. It takes Jalen Hurts’ bad pick out of the game. 

Yes, and shaky calls create the nail biter games that never should be in the first place. Had that Xavier Worthy non-catch been called as such in the AFCCG, that changes a touchdown to a field goal ATTEMPT, which consequently changes the entire trajectory of the game because iirc the Bills went down and scored a touchdown the following series. The refs can create the nail biter games which they did in the AFCCG. Go figure, a team with a shaky offensive line that has been playing nail biter games all season, went and got blown out by a much better all around team and the team that had a great offensive line all season, and a couple of better weapons at the skill positions, got too many questionable calls and didn’t move on to compete. The Bills had the team better suited to rival the Eagles and their pass rush.

[Sojourner]

There was some dubious calls early but it seemed the refs did a make up and it evened itself out. They couldn’t give them the freebies with what’s happened in their last 2 games on route to the Super Bowl. Fans and media have been relentless is pointing out suspicions of calls that attribute a sense of favoritism. Directly or indirectly. 
 

The biggest takeaway from the game in terms of officiating was the strip sack by Milton Williams. Jalen Carter (98) crushing Mahomes’ face mask into his skull lol. Thought for sure it would have been RTP. 
 

 

[RoyBatty is alive]

I looked back to the start.

 

First terrible call went for the Chiefs, offensive pass interference on Brown being covered by McDuffie,  Even Brady said he didnt like that call,  Then soon after  The Eagles got their "make up call"  again with McDuffie of the Chiefs hitting Dallas Goddard and got the unnecessary roughness call for an automatic first down, again Brady chimed in that he didn't like it.

 

After that, the rest of the game if anything I thought most close calls went to the Eagles..

[JP51]

Honestly, if we are playing into the "Conspiracy"  theory... and its true.. I think the NFL could care less who won that game... they just wanted Tay Tay at the game for ratings... after that it didnt matter... plus the heat over the year I think they played it close... that is IF you believe in the conspiracy theory. Pretty sure I dont but there was some really questionable stuff that went on that I cant explain as random bad calls...  maybe there was an unconscious bias... But in the end the officiating would not have changed that game one way or the other it was a beat down... the Bills game... correct calls wouldnt have hurt... but in the end, we need to be better... too much blame to not look in the mirror... conspiracy or not...