The "Chiefs and the refs against the world" narrative isn't going away anytime soon. In Week 4's Sunday night matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and New York Jets, there were three game-changers out there on the field: Patrick Mahomes, Zach Wilson, and the officiating crew.
Among a handful of questionable calls including Jawaan Taylor's facemask penalty that led to a safety and Taylor getting away with a holding penalty later in the game (the ex-Jaguars offensive lineman can't catch a break), one call in the fourth quarter drew the ire of Jets fans in particular.
On a third-and-long with 4:29 remaining in the game, Patrick Mahomes' pass to Marquez Valdes-Scantling was intercepted by Michael Carter II, giving the Jets renewed hope they could actually pull of the unlikely comeback victory.
However, the referees threw a late flag and penalized Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner for a holding penalty on Valdes-Scantling. That pivotal penalty extended the Chiefs' drive, and Kansas City would continue to run down the clock and eventually ice the game.
Chiefs HC Andy Reid defends referees after controversial call in Week 4
Immediately after the call, fans addressed the questionable penalty on Twitter, and many pointed out that the Chiefs have gotten away with this kind of thing before.
The Chiefs themselves didn't see anything wrong with the call, though. After the game, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said he thought Gardner did in fact commit a holding penalty. Reid said, "Listen, I thought it was a hold. I've gotta go back and look at the tape on it, he was on the other side of the field. But they (Jets) are aggressive, and so they're gonna get a couple of those during the game. Sauce is as good as there is in the league. He might've had a little bit of fabric."
Marquez Valdes-Scantling, the receiver on the end of Gardner's hold, also agreed the call was correct. He said, "They were grabby all night. We finally got one called for us."
Valdes-Scantling added, "The goal wasn't to get the holding call. The goal was to catch the ball. That was prevented because of the penalty."
A lot of people might disagree with the Chiefs wideout there. Jets head coach Robert Saleh even received a penalty for screaming at the referees, and Sauce Gardner said the Chiefs got "bailed out" on that play.
This is hardly the first time the Chiefs have been on the generous side of referees' calls. Remember the James Bradberry hold from the Super Bowl? Kansas City narrowly escaped with the 23-20 victory over the Jets this weekend, but the reigning Super Bowl champs will never be out of the woods when it comes to allegedly biased officiating decisions.
