Eric Bieniemy is why Chiefs are missing accountability on Kadarius Toney penalty

The Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. On the Chiefs final drive, Patrick Mahomes found Travis Kelce for a big gain. Kelce then threw a lateral to Kadarius Toney, who scampered to the end zone, giving KC the lead. The only problem? Toney lined up in front of the line of scrimmage in the neutral zone, thus resulting in an offensive offisdes penalty.

To the NFL's credit, offensive offsides is something they have emphasized the last few weeks. However, it's understandable that the Chiefs were surprised by said penalty being called with two minutes left in the game. Mahomes was downright furious during and after the game, even discussing the matter postgame with Josh Allen. Mahomes wasn't shy at the mic in his postgame press conference.

“Yeah, it’s tough because there’s so many guys that are all in the same area,” Mahomes explained. “We talked about [it], and we say, they’re not gonna throw flags, they’re gonna let the guys go out there and play. The one on Trav (Travis Kelce) (was) a little aggressive because the guy [fully] pushed him out of the way. That’s the kind of guy that we want to be in the middle of going up and get the ball. So at some point, there’s got to be a flag, but at the same time, we tell the guys they’re not gonna throw a lot of flags in that situation.”

Eric Bieniemy handled accountability with the Chiefs

There's no beating around the bush here -- Mahomes and the Chiefs did not handle this well. Toney was clearly offsides, and even Andy Reid (initially) questioned the call. Per Mahomes himself, Bieniemy held the offense accountable for mistakes as recently as last season.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s a combination of a lot of guys,” Mahomes explained. “I think Coach Bieniemy set that standard when he was here. And I think you could see those lingering effects of the other coaches who have coached underneath EB (Eric Bieniemy) and then coach Nagy. I mean, I coached with EB, been an offensive coordinator before, and QB coach last year, We hold each other accountable; the coaches hold us accountable. But obviously, we’ve made some mistakes that we don’t typically make, and we’re gonna try to correct those as quickly as possible.”

Clearly, Nagy and Reid didn't set the standard this season, which is much of the reason the current receiving corps hasn't taken a step forward (except for Toney, who did so literally when he shouldn't have).

Bieniemy is by no means perfect -- the Commanders have their own problems. However, there's no denying that the Chiefs offense has taken a step back without him, both on and off the field.