Another bad roughing the passer call, this one took a turnover away from Chiefs D
Andy Reid is a gentle soul, especially in relation to other NFL head coaches. It takes a lot to get him as heated as he was Monday night.
He can join other coaches, players and fans around the NFL who aren't happy with how roughing the passer is being called this week.
The Kansas City Chiefs were on the wrong end of a bad call on Monday night. Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones seemed to make a huge play late in the second quarter with the Chiefs trailing 17-7. Jones got to the Las Vegas Raiders' Derek Carr, sacked him and got a fumble. He landed on Carr but it wasn't egregious.
The flag came out. So did Reid's anger as he yelled at the officials.
Officials ruled that Jones landed with his body weight on Carr. There wasn't a lot of choice as Jones cradled the fumble after hitting Carr.
"At some point you have to be realistic," ESPN play-by-play announcer Joe Buck said on the broadcast. "The defense player, what's he supposed to do, disappear?"
"I just think it's a bad call," ESPN color analyst Troy Aikman, a Hall of Fame quarterback, added.
Obviously Chris Jones must magically levitate into another galaxy here. Good God. pic.twitter.com/fO0hMtcaeh
— Tyler Dunne (@TyDunne) October 11, 2022
Chiefs fans booed and chanted at the officials the rest of the half.
ESPN brought on officiating analyst John Parry, who pointed out that Jones braced himself with his left arm, which officials are supposed to look for when judging if a defender falls on the quarterback with his full body weight. He seemed to disagree with the call too.
"I can see why the Kansas City fans are not thrilled with it," Parry said.
Jones wasn't thrilled with it either, because he didn't know what else he was supposed to do in that particular situation. He explained that at his locker after the game, and also called for the NFL to add rouging the passer to the list of penalties that can be reviewed in the booth.
"What am I gonna go up to them and say? How should I tackle? How should I not roll on him? I'm trying my best, I'm 325 pounds. What do you want me to do? I'm running full speed trying to get to the quarterback. I hit the ball. What do you want me to do? I brace my hands. So now I think it's time to take the initiative to extend to looking at roughing the passers now as a league, like they did with pass interference a few years back."
It was another questionable roughing call, one day after the Atlanta Falcons got a universally criticized roughing call against Tom Brady. Officiating always gets criticized, and now fans have a good reason to tee off.