THEY STRIKE AGAIN

BY MIKE RIFKIN

On Sunday the Chiefs and Bills played another chapter in their fantastic rivalry. The Bills beat the Chiefs by a score of 28-21. In what was a fantastic game played by two outstanding teams, there’s one play in the game that stands out.

In the third quarter down eight points the Chiefs had the ball at their own 44 yard line. Patrick Mahomes threw a pass that wound up near nobody, which led to an intentional grounding penalty, which was 10 yards and a loss of down, meaning instead of 3rd and 6 it would be 3rd and 16. But should the penalty have been called? No, the ball was deflected by a Bills’ lineman, which should’ve negated the penalty. Chiefs coach Andy Reid threw the challenge flag to get the play reviewed, and the refs said “there’s no reviewable aspect to the play”. 

How can there be no reviewable aspect to the play? Coaches can challenge if a ball was deflected on a pass interference penalty, but not intentional grounding. That doesn’t make sense, how can you allow it for one but not the other. There are other factors of why the Chiefs lost this game, but this is a massive call because the Bills go down the field and score a touchdown putting them up 28-13.  So, the refs didn’t see the ball get tipped and it’s not challengeable, how can replay assist miss it as well? While fans can be critical of the refs and sometimes rightfully and sometimes not there is no reason why they missed this call. But on top of this, how is it not reviewable? If you have the technology use it, but here’s the even dumber thing YOU CAN CHALLENGE A TIPPED BALL FOR PASS INTERFERENCE. So if you can challenge it based on one penalty, how come you can’t do it for another.  What if this was a playoff game and the game was decided on a play similar to that? It can’t happen, the NFL seriously needs to change the rule here, or replay assist should’ve stepped in otherwise what is the point of having it.