That friendly Kansas City whistle turned around to bite the Chiefs on Sunday.
In the middle of a must-win game against the Colts on Sunday, the Chiefs were driving down the field behind 20-17, hopeful for a late-game drive to tie or take the lead, until tight end Travis Kelce was called for an egregious offensive pass interference call.
“This is the worst call I have seen all year. It’s literally the worst call I’ve seen all year,” Romo said on the CBS broadcast after Kareem Hunt scampered for a six-yard gain on a short pass to get the drive started. “He’s getting guarded. They’re going to say he’s running around. They think he picks 53. He doesn’t. He goes into his own guy who’s guarding him and says it’s pass interference on him.”
The play nullified the Hunt gain as it was called offensive pass interference against Kelce and was enforced half the distance to the goal, pinning the Chiefs back to their own three-yard line for a first down and 13 with 4:43 remaining in regulation.
Romo, who has been highly criticized in recent years, was floored by the penalty call on Kelce.
“That is ridiculous, wow,” Romo said. “You know that happens on almost every play if you’re pressing someone, right? I think they thought he hit the other guy first and 13 back at…”
The Chiefs were penalized seven times for 57 yards, while the Colts had 11 infractions for 83 yards.
After the penalty, Kelce took the blame, but Romo disagreed that he should be taking any fall for the call.
The Chiefs persevered and drove the ball down the field for the game-tying field goal before winning the game in overtime.
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The Chiefs had been trailing the whole game and were down 20-9 entering the fourth quarter before pulling off the comeback that could save their season.
Kansas City improved to 6-5 with the win and remain one game out of a wild-card spot. The Chargers, Bills and Jaguars occupy the three wild-card spots, and all three teams are 7-4, setting up what should be a wild race to the finish line in the AFC.
Public research university, University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), did a study earlier this year that the Chiefs have gotten a massively favorable whistle in recent years in big games, including playoff games and nationally televised games.
The Chiefs play the Cowboys on Thanksgiving, with Dallas coming off a thrilling 24-21 comeback victory over the Eagles.
