Patrick Mahomes controversy: NFL Senior VP of Officiating Walt Anderson justifies flags vs. Texans

The Kansas City Chiefs appeared to benefit from some generous calls from officials during Saturday’s 23-14 AFC Divisional Round victory over the Houston Texans. And in every example, quarterback Patrick Mahomes found himself involved.

First came a roughing the passer penalty called on Texans edge rusher Will Anderson in the first quarter. As Anderson converged on Mahomes as he was attempting a pass, he made slight contact with Mahomes’ helmet. The penalty gave Kansas City a fresh set of downs and the Chiefs ended the drive with a field goal.

Appearing on Sunday’s “NFL GameDay” on NFL Network, NFL Senior Vice President of Officiating Walt Anderson explained why the officials made the correct call.

NFL Senior VP of Officiating Walt Anderson appeared on @NFLGameDay with a detailed explanation of the controversial flags thrown Saturday for hits on #Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes.

Short version, per Anderson: Under the rules, officials got both calls right. pic.twitter.com/64KASl2VuD

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 19, 2025

“On the roughing the passer, whenever the defender comes in… and when they end up coming in face-to-face, if there’s contact to the head of the quarterback, that’s probably going to be called by the officials,” Anderson said. “Now, it has to be forcible. And one of the things we added this year is if there’s no contact at all to the helmet, replay can assist. But on this play, there was contact and so replay could not have helped the officials with picking that up. You can end up having the debate of whether you thought it was forcible or not. And that’s going to be one of those conversations for the competition committee to consider next year.

“But when he [Anderson] comes in face-to-face [with Mahomes], officials are going to call that. That’s the rule for this year. And the other thing that a lot of your audience might not realize is in most all of the rulebook, when in question, officials are not supposed to call a foul. But there’s one place in the rulebook where it states by rule that when in doubt, officials are to call roughing the passer and it’s in the roughing the passer rule. They’re going to protect the quarterbacks.”

Will Anderson calls out officials after series of calls in favor of Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs

Later in the game, Texans linebacker Henry To’oTo’o received an unnecessary roughness penalty for making contact with the helmet of a sliding Mahomes. Defensive tackle Folorunso Fatukasi appeared to make more contact with his own teammate than To’oTo’o did with Mahomes. That didn’t matter and Houston picked up another costly penalty.

Anderson said that once Mahomes went to the ground, he’s automatically ruled down without having to be touched. The contact happened and resulted in the flag being thrown on the play.

“Whether it seems like it or not, officials have to call based on what they see,” Anderson said. “Now, when a player goes to the ground, he doesn’t even have to be touched. He’s down. And what happens here is yes, the two [Texans] players end up colliding. But when No. 39 [To’oTo’o] comes in and the hairline of his helmet strikes the helmet of the runner [Mahomes] who is already on the ground, that’s a foul. Even if Replay Assist could help in that, when there’s contact like that, that’s not gonna be changed by Replay Assist. Even if the committee decides to add that for next year.”

A frustrated Will Anderson made known his feelings on the officiating during the game.

“We knew it was going to be us against the refs going into in this game. … We’ve got to go out there and we’ve got to do what’s better,” he said. “In some instances, we didn’t do that. In some instances, we did.

“We’ve just to keep going, man. Next offseason, get the guys together, man. Everybody just coming together and just keep building that team chemistry and get past this hump.”