Andy Reid admits Kadarius Toney was lined up offsides, didn't check with referee before flag

The Kansas City Chiefs (8-5) and head coach Andy Reid were irate at the offsides penalty on receiver Kadarius Toney that wiped out a would-be touchdown in the 20-17 Week 14 defeat to the Buffalo Bills (7-6) Sunday.

Reid called the offsides penalty “a bit embarrassing” for the NFL, a message echoed by quarterback Patrick Mahomes as well. After having nearly 24 hours to dissect the play further, Reid walked back his criticism, admitting that Toney failed to check with the referee to see if he was onsides before the play.

“Normally, he looks over to the sideline and just gets an OK,” Reid said, via NFL.com. “On that one, he just happened not to. That’s the coaching point. Just make sure you check with the guy on the side just to see if you’re aligned. I mean, he’s not lining up offsides on purpose. Listen, he was two inches or an inch from being legal. Like I said, you can argue both sides of it.”

The penalty in question came with 1:25 remaining in the fourth quarter. Mahomes found tight end Travis Kelce over the middle of the field, who then tossed a perfect lateral over to Toney as defenders converged on him. Toney scampered to the end zone for six, not knowing that the officials had thrown a flag at the start of the play. It was on Toney, who was lined up in an offsides position when the ball was snapped.

Reid said that Toney needed to line up properly on the play.

“Do we need to line up right? Yeah, we do. We got to take care of that. We can’t put it in the officials’ hands,” Reid said.

NFL set to review Andy Reid’s postgame comments on officials

Though Reid may see things differently now, it doesn’t change his comments from after the game, when he openly criticized officials. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the league will review both Reid and Mahomes’ comments from after the game, as a policy exists against questioning the integrity of the referees.

Reid did, however, explain why he was so heated at the officiating crew in the first place.

“I know what I said about the officials yesterday or insinuated about the officials,” Reid said. “Listen, there are no excuses on this thing. That’s not what I’m saying. I’ve always had a good working relationship with these guys, and that’s the important part. They know when they tell me something with a guy, I’m going to go address the guy like right now and make sure that it gets changed.

“When you’re talking about inches, those types of things, and those happen in the game — I’ve been doing this a long time. This isn’t an excuse or a blame on the officials for blowing the game. That’s not what it is. But it’s that working relationship. That part is so important in this thing. Cause you can see it on both sides. Whether it’s a defensive player lining up in the neutral zone at times or that. You give a head coach a heads up, and then, in our case, we tell them. And then if they get called, listen, you were warned. That’s how it’s worked over the years. That’s what I was really trying to get across.

“I take a lot of pride in taking what the officials give me and going to our players and telling them. Like, immediately telling them and giving them that. Telling them that, ‘Hey listen, they’re giving you a warning, if you don’t do it, that’s on your plate.’ That’s the important part that I was trying to get across but probably not very well after the game.”