Patrick Mahomes was “lost for words” following a controversial refereeing decision that potentially cost the Kansas City Chiefs victory over the Buffalo Bills.
Wide receiver Kadarius Toney was called for offside with just over a minute left in the fourth quarter after being picked out in the end zone by Travis Kelce on a cross-field lateral. Had the touchdown stood, the Chiefs would have taken the lead. Instead they lost possession on downs and went on to lose 20-17.
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Mahomes, who had to be restrained from confronting the officials on the touchline, and the Chiefs were angry that Toney was not warned he was offside prior to the play.
“I’ve played seven years [and] never had offensive offside called,” Mahomes said.
“That’s elementary school [stuff] we’re talking about. There was no warning throughout the entire game. Then you wait until there’s a minute left in the game to make a call like that? It’s tough. Lost for words. It’s tough.
“Regardless if we win or lose, just the end of another game and we’re talking about the refs. It’s just not what we want for the NFL and for football.
“What you want as a competitor is you practice all week to go out there and try to win, and you want it to be about your team and that team and see what happens. You don’t want to be talking about this stuff after the game.
“I’m not worried about if there was a flag on the next player or whatever, not a flag. I want to go out there and play and then see what happens at the end, see what the score is, and then I can live with the results.”
The controversy meant an epic play by Kelce did not count, but Mahomes said the tight end’s brilliance should still be recognised.
“That’s something that only a couple of people in this world would even think about doing,” he added.
“For him to make that play in that moment, making the catch, making a couple dudes miss and throwing the ball across the field to another guy and scoring a touchdown in that moment, I hope they still show it whenever he goes into the Hall of Fame, because that’s a legendary moment that we didn’t get to really witness.”
The Chiefs still top the AFC West but saw their record slip to 8-5 on the season. The Bills (7-6) are second in the AFC East.
