Bengals fans won’t like to hear what Gene Steratore said about a missed Chiefs penalty in the AFC Championship game.
Just about everyone now is well aware of the late hit and roughing the passer penalty that was called on Joseph Ossai, setting the Chiefs up in the perfect position to win the AFC Championship with a field goal.
On that same play, though, a lesser-known element was that the Chiefs should have been penalized for a hold.
With Cincinnati Bengals DE Trey Hendrickson rushing in on the right side against Orlando Brown in an attempt to pressure Patrick Mahomes, he was clearly held by Brown.
Two angles from the last play of the game. The refs completely ignore this very blatant hold of Trey Hendrickson, but they do call a late hit on the #Bengals when Mahomes clearly flopped after taking a *very* light shove from Ossai. Cincy fans should be furious. #Rigged #WhoDey pic.twitter.com/sFJHNWoMhQ
— Roberto Shenanigans (@Rob_Shenanigans) January 30, 2023
Frankly, we don’t need an expert to tell us that, the video is enough, but now we’ve got an expert viewpoint, too.
Chiefs should have been penalized on same play that resulted in roughing the passer
Here’s what Gene Steratore, rules expert, said about the play:
"“There were two players kind of offense and defense, kind of locked in and engaged with each other. As Patrick started to scramble to his right, though, it appeared to me that the defender then is trying to disengage from that stock-blocking dance that they were happy to be with. And when he attempted to disengage and pursue Patrick, then there was that restriction that occurred for that brief second or two. So technically yes, at that point then, you have affected that play because you’re restricting someone kind of outside of the framework of the body. So they’ll look at that one and say yes, that’s holding.”"
CBS’ Gene Steratore says there was enough restriction to call holding on Chiefs the play Mahomes was hit out of bounds in the final minute. pic.twitter.com/aZtHTepbUn
— Andrew Perloff (@andrewperloff) January 30, 2023
These plays happen. Not every little penalty is caught or called in the process of a game. This one, though, is huge, considering the part of the game it came in and the fact that the tail-end of the same play resulted in a controversial penalty for the other team.
While this play would not have resulted in offsetting penalties since the yardage is different, it would have only awarded the Chiefs 5 yards instead of 15. The play happened on 3rd and 4, so it would have been a new set of downs for Patrick Mahomes and 00:08 seconds of clock.
The Chiefs may have still won if both penalties were correctly called, but we’ll never know now.
Ultimately, while we all wish officiating could be perfect, it just can’t be. Teams that can’t put themselves far enough away from a tie will be subject to a bad whistle in the crucial moments of the game.