Chiefs Speak Out on Roughing the Passer Call vs. Raiders
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The Kansas City Chiefs got off to a rough start against the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night, then they put the "rough" in "roughing the passer" despite ultimately coming away with a win.
On a third-and-eight play with 1:13 left in the first half, Raiders quarterback Derek Carr dropped back for a pass and was sacked by Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones for a loss of six yards. Carr also fumbled on the play and Jones recovered the ball, but a late flag negated all of Jones's work within a matter of seconds. The three-time Pro Bowler was called for roughing the passer on the play, which allowed Las Vegas to continue its drive and eventually go up by a score of 20-7.
The questionable decision by referee Carl Cheffers and crew was one in a long run of them in the first half, which partially contributed to Kansas City struggling to find its footing and get back in the game until things normalized some in the second half. The in-game broadcast duo of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman struggled to wrap their heads around the call, as did countless folks on Twitter. Just a day after Atlanta Falcons defensive lineman Grady Jarrett was the victim of an egregious call, another split-second officiating decision became the trending topic of NFL discourse.
After the game, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said he thought Jones had the ball and didn't rough the passer. He was also visibly heated heading into the half, having an exchange with Cheffers instead of following his team directly into the locker room. When asked about whether the suspect roughing the passer flag inspired the Chiefs at all in half No. 2, Reid admitted that it may have fired his team up some.
"I mean, the guys felt the same way I did, so yeah," Reid said. "I think it gave us a little juice, probably."
Reid, who is involved with league committees and is one of the more well-respected figures in all of football, elaborated on his reasoning. In addition to tipping his cap to the referees for the job they attempt (and attempted) to do, the 64-year-old added that there needs to be a midpoint between allowing quarterbacks to be adequately protected and letting defensive players do what they're paid to do.
"I understand protecting the quarterback," Reid said. "That's important, it is important. There's a fine line, right? We've just got to sort that out, but these guys... they work their butt off to do a good job or us out here and the league spends time doing it and looking at it. Sometimes there's a point where you've got to let guys play, and we've just got to find where that happy medium is."
Safety Justin Reid said he didn't agree with the penalty being called, but he also said that all the Chiefs can do is control how they play. After the game, Jones was also asked about his thought process and how he feels things like this can be avoided in the future. NFL Officiating's official pool report from Adam Teicher of ESPN with Cheffers indicates that Jones putting his full body weight on Carr through the tackle was what led to the flag being thrown, but Jones says he doesn't need an explanation.
"There's no need for an explanation," Jones said. "What am I going to go up to them and say? 'How should I tackle?' 'How should I not roll on him?' I'm trying my best. I'm 325 pounds. What do you want me to do? I'm running full speed trying to get to the quarterback."
Jones, who is friends with Carr, said the two chatted briefly after the game and the Raiders' quarterback told him he had no idea how the roughing the passer penalty was called. Citing no hard feelings towards anyone involved, Jones still made it perfectly clear that things need to change. He campaigned for a video review system for future roughing the passer calls, arguing that those flags can have detrimental impacts on high-stakes games such as playoff matchups in the future if not handled with care (something similar has already happened to Jones in an AFC Championship Game once).
"The ref, I get it," Jones said. "It happened so fast, and it kind of looked like that initially but when you actually look through the video and slow it down, you see I kind of braced. The ref might have just seen a big 300-pound [man] land on him, and I get it. I get it. I'm not saying the ref is wrong, but I'm just saying that those situations can affect the game tremendously."
The 2022 campaign has been a tremendous one for Jones thus far, as he's experiencing good individual success in the stat sheet while also being the leader of the Chiefs' defensive line and headlining a unit that has performed admirably this season. With that said, he's now been called for his second controversial penalty in a three-game span. As he continues to search for answers as to how he can avoid getting put in tough spots in the future, the Chiefs will hope for better penalty fortunes moving forward.
