Houston Texans players and coaches are far from pleased with how the officiating crew called their 23-14 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday.
Playing in the AFC divisional round of the playoffs for the second straight season, Houston felt like it had to contend with officials in addition to the Chiefs.
There were two calls in particular that had the Texans especially fired up, with the first coming on Kansas City’s second drive of the game. Houston defensive end Will Anderson Jr. was flagged for roughing the passer on what appeared to be a clean play on third-and-8 from the Chiefs 33.
Kansas City took that automatic first down and ran with it, eventually capitalizing when Harrison Butker kicked a 36-yard field goal to put the Chiefs up 6-3.
The Texans were also unhappy with a call in the third quarter. Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes scrambled for 9 yards and slid late, leading Henry To’oTo’o and Folorunso Fatukasi to seemingly deliver a blow to the signal-caller’s upper body.
However, replays on the ESPN broadcast showed that To’oTo’o and Fatukasi actually collided with each other. Still, To’oTo’o was hit with an unnecessary roughness penalty that cost Houston 15 yards.
Nine plays later, the Chiefs were in the end zone and up 20-12 with 11:52 to go in the fourth quarter.
“We knew it was going to be us vs. the refs going into this game,” Anderson said following the loss.
Texans coach DeMeco Ryans took an indirect jab at the referees, but he also made it clear that Houston wasn’t nearly clean enough to dethrone the two-time defending Super Bowl champions.
“We knew going into this game, man, it was us vs. everybody. And when I say everybody, it’s everybody,” Ryans said. “Knowing that going into this game, what we were up against, we can’t make the mistakes that we made.
“Whether it’s special teams not converting our kicks. Defensively, not being where we’re supposed to be in coverage. Offensively, not protecting our quarterback and keeping him clean. You married that on top of everything else that we have to deal with, it’s just going to be a really tough uphill battle.”
–Field Level Media
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