The Chiefs were able to run out the final 7:24 of a 23-20 win over the Jets on Sunday night thanks to some timely runs by Patrick Mahomes and a key defensive holding penalty on Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner.
Jets cornerback Michael Carter intercepted a Mahomes pass on third-and-20 from the Jets’ 40-yard-line with just over four minutes left to play, but the Chiefs got the ball back when Gardner was flagged for holding wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling. Replays showed what looked like the kind of contact that went uncalled on dozens of snaps in the game, but the penalty stood and the Jets offense would not get a chance to pull off the upset.
“The receiver ran into me, it was a collision,” Gardner said in his postgame press conference. “The same thing that was happening all game. They ain’t throw no flags. Pat threw the ball outside of the receiver, MC was there. He made the play and then the ref threw the flag. To me, personally, that’s like when you play basketball one-on-one and you go up to lay the ball up and you wait to see if you miss and then call the foul. I can’t believe that, that was just crazy. I don’t even think they threw the ball my way, at me, the first three quarters. And then they started throwing checkdowns, and the shot they take to get going, they get bailed out by that. Fourth quarter, crunch time, I don’t even know what to say.”
Jets head coach Robert Saleh declined to comment on the officiating after the game, but the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty he got for berating those officials on the field after the final play of the game likely covered most of what he felt needed to be say about a very consequential call.