Near the end of the Kansas City Chiefs‘ loss to the Green Bay Packers last Sunday, quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw a Hail Mary pass to wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
The pass ended up incomplete, but it seemed fairly cleared that defensive pass interference should have been called on the play. Instead, the refs swallowed their whistles, and the Chiefs were dealt a 27-19 loss.
Typically, the referees are less likely to make that sort of call in the waning moments of a game, so it’s entirely possible they would have called pass interference had that play been in the first half rather than at the back end of the fourth quarter.
Mahomes commented on the incident afterward, saying he felt that a flag should have been thrown. However, he also understood the “unwritten rule” that penalties are rarely called under those circumstances.
“Yeah, it’s tough because there’s so many guys that are all in the same area,” Mahomes said, via Ed Easton Jr. of Chiefs Wire. “We talked about [it], and we say, they’re not gonna throw flags, they’re gonna let the guys go out there and play. The one on Trav (Travis Kelce) [was] a little aggressive because the guy [fully] pushed him out of the way. That’s the kind of guy that we want to be in the middle of going up and get the ball. So at some point, there’s got to be a flag, but at the same time, we tell the guys they’re not gonna throw a lot of flags in that situation.”
Patrick Mahomes went 21-for-33 with 210 yards, a touchdown and an interception in the defeat. On the season overall, the two-time MVP has thrown for 3,127 yards, 22 touchdowns and 10 picks while completing 67.8 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 95.1.
The Chiefs have now gone just 2-3 over their last five games and are 8-4 this year. They will take on the Buffalo Bills on Sunday afternoon.
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