Getty Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes II vs the Houston Texans in 2022.
The Kansas City Chiefs are heading into Christmas weekend with an 11-3 record but they haven’t been playing a very convincing brand of football the past few weeks.
KC narrowly survived the one-win Texans in Houston with an overtime victory on a run by Jerick McKinnon. Having said that, the referees didn’t exactly help them out very much.
Fans and players were especially livid over the blatantly late hits on Patrick Mahomes, but the quarterback didn’t say much about the potential penalties that went uncalled after the game. During a radio spot this week, the superstar signal-caller did finally address the roughing the passer rule in more detail.
Patrick Mahomes Comments on NFL Roughing the Passer Rule
KC sports radio host Carrington Harrison posed the question on his recurring spot titled “The Drive,” with Audacy’s 610 Sports Radio (Kansas City).
“I’m not trying to get you in trouble with the league,” Harrison preluded before asking carefully: “Do you have a clear understanding of what the roughing the passer rules are? Because there were a couple of hits that you took that I’m just watching other hits [around] the league and I’m like — I think that’s roughing the passer, but they didn’t call it in this situation. Do you have a clear understanding of what roughing the passer is?”
“Yeah, I mean I have an understanding of it, you know the rules,” Mahomes responded, “but at the end of the day, you’re just playing the game. You let that stuff kind of handle itself, you let the refs make the calls, I mean, they’re human too. It’s a discretion call so they’re going to make the calls [based on] whatever they think’s best for the game.”
It was a very judicious answer from the well-trained team leader, but there were some interesting word choices from Mahomes. For example, rightfully so, he referred to the flag as a “discretion call,” which would mean opinion does come into it.
He also said that the officials will do “whatever they think’s best for the game.” Mahomes may not have voiced this intentionally, but most times, what a person truly believes tends to rise to the surface of their subconscious — and nothing he said was false.
The NFL rulebook isn’t black and white and the roughing the passer rule is often grayer than most, but it’s odd that the Chiefs superstar can’t seem to buy a flag. After all, he’s only the face of the league and arguably the most important player to the NFL’s revenue stream.
Keeping him healthy and on the field should be paramount, especially when these hits are well after the ball is out of Mahomes’ hands — but that has not always been the case.
“I try not to worry about it,” Mahomes concluded. “I try to just go out there and play and find a way to win. Whatever happens happens, I can only control what I can control.”
Patrick Mahomes’ Silver Linings From Tight Victories
Harrison chatted with Mahomes about everything from this week’s upcoming matchup with the Seattle Seahawks to the Christmas gift he got from Travis Kelce. Included was more on the tight victory over the Texans and what the QB takes from games like these.
“You want to continue to get better and to win these games by a little bit bigger margin but I think the only good thing you can take from it is that we know how to win these tough-fought games,” Mahomes told Harrison. “In the playoffs, that’s how all the games are going to be. Even when we don’t have our best stuff on [a given] day, we’re able to find a way to win.”
It’s an astute observation from the 27-year-old veteran. Some might see these close wins as disappointing, but Mahomes sees them as valuable learning experiences for himself and his teammates.
And in a one-score game during the postseason, who’s better than Mahomes, Kelce, and head coach Andy Reid?
“Hopefully we can get some momentum going into the playoffs and play a little bit better as far as the turnovers go,” he admitted, “but other than that I think guys are playing hard and we’re finding a way to win at the end of the day.”