The Houston Texans expressed their anger that they faced both Kansas City Chiefs referees and NFL referees in their controversial playoff defeat at Arrowhead on Saturday night.
DeMeco Ryans’ men were beaten 23-14 by Kansas City in a playoff game marred by several controversial decisions that went in the home team’s favor.
Fans were outraged when Patrick Mahomes took advantage of two huge calls on the night, including when Texans defensive end Will Anderson Jr. was penalized for tackling a Chiefs quarterback a split second after he released the ball.
Refs also cited two Houston defenders for unnecessary roughness after they made minor contact with Mahomes when he slid to the ground at the end of an offensive play, a decision that Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy called “disgusting.”
After seeing some controversial calls go against them, Anderson suggested after the game that the Texans were expecting too much at Arrowhead.
He told reporters: We knew that we would face the referees in this match.
The Texans were on the wrong end of some controversial calls in their defeat to the Chiefs
Houston coach DeMeco Ryans targeted a backdoor dig at the officials after their defeat
Head coach DeMeco Ryans echoed that sentiment in his postgame press conference, saying, “We knew going into this game, man, it was us against everybody.” When I say everyone, it’s everyone.
He then added: “However, knowing what we were facing before this match, we cannot make the mistakes we made.” We had a lot of mistakes that we made ourselves.
“Whether it’s special teams not converting our kicks, or defensively we’re not where we’re supposed to be in coverage, or offensively we’re not protecting our quarterback and keeping him clean…you marry that on top of everything else we had to deal with,” he said. It’s going to be a really tough, uphill battle.
Portnoy was one of many people on social media left angry over the controversial decisions in Kansas City’s favor, taking to the X during Saturday night’s game to accuse NFL referees of “cheating.”
“The good news is that the Texans are dominating and their defense is flying around. The bad news is that the refs cheat and they lose.”
A number of users agreed with Portnoy, including one who posted a clip of Anderson’s tackle on Mahomes and said: “The #NFL is so primed for the Chiefs!” Bulls*** attack the passer penalty against the #Texans for a picture-perfect tackle against valuable Patrick #Mahomes.
‘silly! The NFL is scripted and unwatchable!
Texans fullback Will Anderson Jr. received a controversial penalty for this tackle on Mahomes
Fans were left equally angry about the rough passer call in the Chiefs-Texans game
“When will the NFL learn what they are doing to Mahomes/Chiefs and what they did for him,” another argued. [Tom] Brady/Patriots just draws the ire of football fans. No one wants to watch referees make every call on a player or team. This is not football!
“Apparently if you sneeze on Mahomes you’ll get a penalty. Unreal,” a third commented sarcastically.
“You can find this 1,000 times with other quarterbacks this year wearing this not called.” Another said: “Just Mahomes.”
While someone simply says: “This is ridiculous.”
ESPN analyst Jason Kelce, whose brother Travis was playing for the Chiefs on Saturday night, also called Anderson’s harsh passer call “questionable.”
Meanwhile, commentator Troy Aikman said of the unnecessary rough call later in the game: “Oh, come on!” I mean he’s a runner. I couldn’t disagree with this more. He barely gets hit.