Getty Kansas City Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu gestures to fans on November 21, 2021.
One of just four penalties the Kansas City Chiefs had on the defensive side of the football during their 48-9 win over the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 14 came at the hands of Tyrann Mathieu.
With 35 seconds remaining in the first half, Las Vegas running back Josh Jacobs took a short pass for 14 yards before being shoved out of bounds by Mathieu.
After the play was over, Mathieu was seen exchanging words with someone on the Raiders’ sideline. Just moments after Mathieu was heard over the official’s microphone saying “go ahead and throw the flag!” one of the game officials threw a penalty flag, and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was called on Mathieu for taunting.
Tyrann Mathieu’s taunting penalty against the #Raiders
Mathieu did not seem very pleased with the penalty despite what sounded like him welcoming it prior to the flag being thrown. After the game, the All-Pro safety took to Twitter to react to his unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
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Mathieu: ‘I Never Taunted in My Life’
Responding to a person named Jackie Bradbury on Twitter who said, “I ain’t even mad with [Tyrann Mathieu’s] taunting penalty,” Mathieu denied that he taunted in the first place.
“I never taunted in my life haha,” he wrote.
Mathieu’s on Defense’s Play
The win over the Raiders extended the Chiefs’ win streak to six games. During the win streak, Kansas City’s defense hasn’t allowed more than 17 points in a game, and has four games in which they’ve only allowed nine points. It’s a tremendous turnaround for a unit that was the worst in the NFL for the first half of the season.
Mathieu spoke about the Chiefs’ defense and if he’s ever been this confident in the unit since he joined the team in 2019.
“Yes, when we won the Super Bowl. Outside of that, anytime you can get back to who you think you are and who you know you want to be,” Mathieu said during his postgame press conference on Sunday, December 12. “A lot of that credit has to go to the coaches and the players too. For the most part, none of the coaches panicked and none of the players panicked. That gave us the chance to get back to who we thought we would be.”
The veteran safety also noted the importance of carrying the high level of play on defense into Kansas City’s Thursday night, Week 15 outing against the Los Angeles Chargers, who are currently in second place in the AFC West.
“I think it’s important,” Mathieu explained. “I think anytime you can get late into the season and your defense starts to come alive, it goes back to the old quote, “defense wins championships.” I think, as a unit, we are trying our best to get better each and every week. We want to give our offense as many possessions as possible. I think we have been doing a great job getting to the quarterback and taking the ball away.”
After wins for both the Chiefs and Chargers in Week 14, Kansas City still holds a one-game lead over Los Angeles in the division. Because the Chargers beat Kansas City back in Week 3, a loss to Los Angeles on Thursday Night Football would mean the defending AFC champions would surrender the division lead with three weeks of play in the regular season remaining.