Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid commented on the controversial Chris Jones roughing the passer penalty on Monday night.
Even if you missed Monday night’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Las Vegas Raiders, chances are you still heard about what happened.
We’re not talking about the final score, or Josh McDaniels going for two rather than tying the game late, or even the four touchdowns that Patrick Mahomes threw to Travis Kelce. The result of the game was almost secondary to the conversation around a roughing the passer penalty that was called against Chris Jones for his hit on Derek Carr.
It wasn’t because Jones so badly brutalized Carr that he needed to be taken out of the game, or that he took a cheap shot on the Raiders quarterback. Rather, Jones was penalized for tackling Carr — and that’s it.
Here’s the play:
The penalty extended the Raiders drive which eventually ended in a field goal to put the team up 20-7. Kansas City marched down the field and added a field goal of its own to cut the deficit to 10 points, but the damage had already been done.
Unfortunately for the Raiders, that damage was suffered by them as the Chiefs came out with a burning fiery passion to bury Las Vegas in the second half. The game ended up being much closer than the burst Kansas City came out of the half with, but it’s undeniable that the horrible call fired the Chiefs up.
Andy Reid comments on Chris Jones roughing the passer penalty
Head coach Andy Reid said as much after the game. He was asked his thoughts on the controversial call and was very to-the-point.
“I thought he had the ball, but that’s [the official’s] job,” Reid said to the media after the game. “What I thought wasn’t right so it is what it is.”
As far as what the call did to the Chiefs mindset?
“The guys felt the way I did so it gave us a little juice,” he added with a smirk when asked what impact the call had on the Chiefs at halftime.
Kansas City was down 17-0 at one point in the first half and looked as flat and out of sorts as it did in a Week 3 loss to Indianapolis. With a game against the Buffalo Bills on the horizon next Sunday afternoon, fans had already made peace with the fact that this could be a look-ahead game where the Chiefs were caught thinking more about the Bills than the Raiders.
Needless to say, the call on Chris Jones woke them up.