While the Chiefs played well enough to win, penalties certainly played a role in Kansas City’s 23-14 win over the Houston Texans in Saturday’s AFC divisional round game. Houston was flagged eight times for 82 yards, while Kansas City was penalized just four times for 29 yards.
Several calls that went against the Texans were questionable at best. That clearly didn’t sit well with the Texans afterwards, including star pass rusher Will Anderson Jr., who had a controversial penalty called against him on the Chiefs’ second possession that helped lead to a Kansas City field goal.
“We knew it was going to be us versus the refs going into this game,” Anderson said.
Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans found a more subtle way to call out the officiating during his postgame press conference.
“We knew going into this game, man, it was us versus everybody,” Ryans said. “When I say everybody, I mean everybody. The naysayers, the doubt. Everybody we had to go against again today. Going into this game knowing what we were up against, we can’t make the mistakes we made. We had a lot of self-inflicted mistakes.”
As Ryans alluded to, poor pass protection and several special teams gaffs also played a role in the Texans’ loss. Houston’s inability to cover Chiefs future tight end Travis Kelce (who caught seven passes or 117 yards and the game-winning touchdown) also contributed to the loss. But there’s no denying that some iffy calls also played a role in the outcome.
Houston’s complaints are shared by other teams and fan bases who feel that the Chiefs often get favorable calls from the officials. While that may be true, the Chiefs also continue to create their own good fortune by capitalizing on their opponent’s mistakes, which was once again the case Saturday.
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