Andy Reid on AFC title penalties: offsides OK, roughing the passer not so much

As we learned shortly before the AFC championship game began Sunday, sometimes, referees’ calls do not go your way.

Such was the case for the Kansas City Chiefs on at least two occasions in Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots—first a roughing the passer penalty on defensive lineman Chris Jones, then the offsides call on linebacker Dee Ford.

The Jones penalty occurred on second-and-7 at the Patriots 28-yard line, with the Chiefs leading, 21-17 in the fourth quarter.

“That one I didn’t agree with,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said on Monday. “ I saw our quarterback from play 27 on get two hits that were way worse than that that weren’t called.”

“Play 27” was a roughing the passer no-call on Patrick Mahomes.

Reid did admit he felt the offsides call on Dee Ford that negated an AFC championship-clinching interception late in the game was the right call.

“He was doing everything possible to try to get to the quarterback,” Reid said of Ford. “Like I said, it wasn’t but by a few inches, but I thought it was legitimate ... It looked like on the angle of our camera, at least, that he might of been off by a tad. Normally, you’re warned and the coach is warned if somebody’s doing that before they throw it in a game of that magnitude, but they did, and he didn’t waste any time doing it. [The referee] didn’t wait until the interception to throw it. He had his hand on his flag right from the get-go, so he saw it on his angle and felt that was the call.”

Although Ford did say Monday the official never warned him, he took full responsibility for what happened.

“I was surprised [to know I was offsides],” Ford said. “Sloppy football on my end and I’ll take that on the chest. That was an opportunity for the whole city of Kansas City to make history. It is what it is at the end of the day—I’ll take it on the chest and I’m going to use it as motivation. Sloppy football on my end at the end of the day, whether it’s six inches, however many inches, I was offsides.”

Ford is due to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason, and after a year in which he compiled a career-high 13.0 sacks, the expectation is the Chiefs will either extend or franchise tag him.

It appears Ford would welcome another opportunity to play in Kansas City.

“I would love to come back,” he added. “I would love to be here. I would love to be here, but that’s out of my control.”