Ball Don't Lie: Chiefs controversy, ghosting a brawl and more bad calls from Week 6

The worst calls of Week 6

1. Lions trick play worked wonderfully, but wasn't legal
2. Stefon Diggs OPI penalties wipe out big Patriots gains
3. Chiefs controversy: KC's penalty-less game, and why the refs left a brawl
4. Why the officials bailed on a game-ending brawl

Another Sunday, another mixed bag from the NFL's officiating crews across the league. While there's little the zebras could do to match their counterparts in the collegiate game – which made the end of the first half in Auburn vs. Georgia far more chaotic than it had to be – they sure did try.

Prior to Week 6, the NFL reportedly sent a memo to officials around the league (and subsequently NFL teams) highlighting exactly what was and wasn't allowed on certain trick plays. These plays have been on their radar for weeks, and appeared to target the likes of the Detroit Lions – we'll get to them, don't worry.

The Lions often test the officials' patience with their oddities, which include a number of players in motion and players you often won't see playing receiver as possible targets. The only necessity on these plays is that they are lined up legally and have reported as eligible to the officiating crew. This brings us to Sunday night.

Lions trick play worked wonderfully, but wasn't legal

Again, technically the officiating crew got this call right. My beef is not with them, but rather the rules committee getting in the way of what should've been the play of the year. The Lions moved quarterback Jared Goff out in motion – all behind the line of scrimmage, mind you, where the Chiefs could've devoted a man in coverage to him – but the Lions quarterback was not set when David Montgomery received the snap.

NBC's rules expert Terry McAulay explained why Goff drew a penalty, despite the play's ingenuity.

All Goff had to do was set himself near the line of scrimmage, much like a receiver would, or remain in the backfield beside Montgomery and this play would've worked to perfection. Unfortunately for the Lions, the league is a stickler for these rules, even if the modern fan often finds them a bit silly. I am that modern fan, and while I believe the NFL ought to embrace plays like these, my opinion isn't nearly as important as the head of officiating's.

Stefon Diggs OPI penalties wipe out big Patriots gains

The Patriots held on to defeat the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, as one of the NFL's most surprising young upstarts are in postseason contention through six weeks. New England was fresh off beating the Buffalo Bills in primetime, so a trip down to New Orleans was a classic trap game for them...until Drake Maye ensured it wasn't. Maye had three passing touchdowns and was the Patriots' leading rusher. New England won by six points, but the game shouldn't have been nearly as close as it was thanks to two questionable calls by the officials on wide receiver Stefon Diggs.

Diggs was called for two separate soft offensive pass interference penalties which are linked below. The first, which occurred early in the game, appeared to come while Diggs was jostling with Saints defensive back Kool-Aid McKinstry. The second was also soft, as Diggs had his hand on the back of New Orleans DB Quincy Riley. At the very least, the call against DIggs on Riley was an easy mistake to make since the Saints sold the call.

Again, New England won this game anyway, but Diggs has a real complaint should officials continue to call him this harshly moving forward.

Chiefs controversy: KC's penalty-less game, and why the refs left a brawl

Since we cleared up why the Lions trick play touchdown was called back, I figured we might as well do the same to a classic narrative: Do the Chiefs really get all the calls? The refs didn't do Kansas City any favors on Sunday night, as they weren't called for any penalties. As far as I can tell, that's only happened four previous times in NFL history, and not often after the AFL-NFL merger. It should come as no surprise that NFL fans rushed to their keyboards to call out a few of the so-called missed decisions which went in the Chiefs favor.

These are...less than obvious, but I'll try to address them one by one. On the first, there isn't close to definitive evidence that Kelce dropped the ball. Should the play have been reviewed? Absolutely, but the Chiefs were savvy enough to know this, which is why they ran up to the line of scrimmage and snapped the football.

As for the holds...man, I don't know what to tell you. Officials will often tell us that holding happens on any given play. Most the time, refs catch the most egregious of the bunch, and as much as I hate to side with the zebras, I gotta say these aren't all that bad. Are they holds? Sure, in a vacuum, they should've been called. However, in the moment they were easy to miss, and that's what is so important to keep in perspective.

Officials are human. Every now and then, they are going to miss a quick hold, or a slight jump offsides. They can only keep track of so much. What I typically bash them for is the worst of the worst. Thanks to the benefit of instant replay, I get to sit in my ivory tower and question their integrity.

Why the officials bailed on a game-ending brawl

While the game-ending brawl between the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs has received plenty of attention, what you'll notice from any clip of the fight between Brian Branch and JuJu Smith-Schuster is that the officials are nowhere to be found. There's a good reason for that – which I'll get to – but first we must ask a very simple question: Should refs be responsible for breaking up fights between players twice their size in pads?

That's difficult to answer, though I tend to lean that they ought to at least be on the field. The refs lost control of the Lions-Chiefs game in part because, again, they didn't make a single call against Kansas City. Branch even said as much postgame.

"I got blocked in the back illegally," Branch said. "And it was in front of the ref and the ref didn't do anything. And just stuff like that. I coulda got hurt off a that, but I still should not have done that."

Branch did apologize for his actions, but the fact that a missed call forced his frustration in the first place is...well, frustrating! And the only person who could've answered for that missed call was on their way to the locker room the second the final whistle blew. This isn't to defend Branch – he shouldn't have started a fight after a loss – but it is rather silly that we expect officials to keep players in line for 60 minutes, only for them to disappear shortly thereafter.

Per Football Zebras, officials aren't responsible for dictating terms after the game. While they will submit details of any extracurriculars in their postgame report, they themselves aren't expected to deal with the issue.

Technically, this was not a bad call, but a poorly-written rule. It's about time we started holding officials to the same standard as players and coaches, no?