As the Kansas City Chiefs picked up another win over the Houston Texans on Saturday, the story was once again focused on the officiating. As has happened throughout the season, the Chiefs benefitted from a few controversial penalties called against Houston.
On Saturday, it was Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes who drew most of the penalties, picking up multiple unnecessary roughness and roughing the passer calls that raised a few eyebrows. ESPN analyst Troy Aikman was vocally angry about the calls during the broadcast; Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said going into the game that it would be “us vs. everybody,” lumping the referees in with that statement.
On Sunday, though, the NFL said that it got the calls right.
NFL rules analyst Walt Anderson, a former referee who is now a communications liaison for the league, went on NFL GameDay on Sunday morning to speak on the controversial calls.
NFL Officiating Rules Analyst Walt Anderson appeared on @NFLGameDay with a detailed explanation of the controversial flags thrown Saturday for hits on #Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes.
Short version, per Anderson: Under the rules, officials got both calls right. pic.twitter.com/gIL9OidOQL
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 19, 2025
The first call that Anderson spoke on was a roughing the passer call in the first quarter. During the third-down play, Mahomes was tackled by Houston defensive end Will Anderson Jr. just after releasing the ball. The penalty gave the Chiefs 15 yards and a first down on a drive that eventually resulted in a field goal.
Anderson said that the reason for the call was based on the fact that Mahomes’ head moved slightly on the tackle, indicating contact to his helmet.
“If there’s contact to the head of the quarterback, that’s probably going to be called by the officials,” Anderson said.
Anderson said that reply assist can only be used if there is not contact to the helmet; since Mahomes’ helmet was hit, the officials could not use replay assist to confirm if the contact was forcible.
“You can end up having to debate about whether you felt it was forcible or not, and that’s going to be one of those conversations for the competition committee to consider next year,” Anderson said.
The rules analyst added that roughing the passer is one of the only fouls where referees are instructed to call the penalty “when in doubt.”
“They’re gonna protect the quarterbacks,” Anderson said of the officials.
Anderson also addressed an unnecessary roughness call in the third quarter, where Mahomes had a late slide and caused two Texans defenders to seemingly collide with each other. “Whether it seems like it or not, officials have to call it based on what they see,” Anderson said.
Anderson said that since the helmet of Texans linebacker Henry To’oTo’o grazed the top of Mahomes’ helmet while he was already on the ground, that was enough to call the penalty. The severity of the helmet-to-helmet contact doesn’t matter.
“Even if replay assist could help in that, when there’s contact like that, that’s not gonna be changed,” Anderson said.
Going forward, Anderson said that the goal of improving officiating was to make the game better, rather than perfect.
“This is one of those areas that is also going to be debated, in terms of what’s forcible, what’s not,” Anderson said. “But the game is not ever going to be perfect, and one thing we don’t want to do is let perfect be the enemy of good. … In those areas that are gray, and may be debatable, we have to leave those on the field.
Anderson added that expanding when referees can use reply assist will be addressed by the league during the offseason.
