WATCH: Clear holding on Chiefs goes unnoticed, while Dolphins penalized for controversial roughing the passer shaping crucial 4th quarter play

The referees instead penalized Christian Wilkins for roughing the passer.

WATCH: Clear holding on Chiefs goes unnoticed, while Dolphins penalized for controversial roughing the passer shaping crucial 4th quarter play

The missed holding call in the Wildcard Round between the Chiefs and Dolphins.

The Wildcard playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins came with its own share of flawed calls. The NFL’s officiating which has been an issue in the regular season appears to have carried over into the playoffs as well as a blatant holding call was missed in the 4th quarter of the game when Kansas City Chiefs had possession of the ball.

With 13 minutes left to go in the final quarter of the game, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs had the ball, the quarterback dropped back after the snap to throw the ball but was instantly hit by defensive tackle Christian Wilkins. This play was deemed to be an unnecessary roughing the passer penalty and the defense was penalized for the same.

YouTube video

Wilkins picked up a personal foul on the play, all he did was push Patrick Mahomes with the right amount of force. However, what was more infuriating was the fact that on this very play, a blatant holding call was missed. The same was acknowledged by the commentators. One of the Kansas City Chiefs offensive linemen held on to the team’s pass rushers jersey and it was a textbook case of holding.

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The referees failed to notice the Chiefs’ OL holding onto the Dolphins’ pass rusher

At the time of the call, the score was 19-7 in favor of the Kansas City Chiefs. After the referees missed the holding call, Mike McDaniel was furious. He paced up and down alongside the sidelines yelling at the referees and pointing out that they had missed a holding call on the Chiefs. It was ridiculous because of the fact that Wilkins’ push on Mahomes was dubbed as roughing the passer on a play wherein any tackle across the NFL would have done the exact same thing.

Christian Wilkins
Christian Wilkins (via The Athletic)

For that to be called a penalty and for an actual violation to be ignored is just egregious. It is frustrating to see that the NFL’s officiating woes have made their way into the playoffs.

The Kansas City Chiefs ended up winning the matchup 26-7 rendering the Dolphins scoreless for the rest of the game. This put an end to the team’s hopes of progressing to the Super Bowl. The Chiefs are now two games short of getting to back-to-back Super Bowls.

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