Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones had the trifecta — a sack, forced fumble and fumble recovery — all on one play.
However, a yellow flag for roughing the passer wiped it all away and left Jones and the Chiefs frustrated and seeking answers despite narrowly defeating the Las Vegas Raiders 30-29 Monday at Arrowhead Stadium.
Late in the second quarter with the Chiefs trailing 17-7, Jones broke through and caught Raiders quarterback Derek Carr from behind. First, Jones swiped the ball from Carr’s hand, then he and Carr both fell to the ground. Jones, though, picked up the ball and started running with it but a whistle blew the play dead.
The call against Jones came one day after Atlanta’s Grady Jarrett was flagged for a roughing the passer penalty against Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady. The penalty allowed the Buccaneers to run out the clock and win the game 21-15. Jones was dumbfounded by the call on Jarrett and felt the same about the call on him.
“Now it’s getting absurd,” Jones said.
Jones did offer a suggestion to the league: make roughing the passer penalties reviewable. He said the speed of the game oftentimes obscures things, especially roughing the passer calls.
“From the ref’s point of view, it probably looked like that initially,” Jones said. “But when you look at the replay it’s a whole different thing. I think now to evolve — roughing the passer and protecting the quarterback is essentially what we’re doing in this league — we got to be able to look at roughing the passer from the booth.
“If the referees can get a second look because it’s happening so fast maybe we can change that because now it’s costing teams games. That was a fourth-down stop on Grady Jarrett. The team would’ve got the ball back and who knows what would’ve happened.”
Though the call on Jones didn’t end up costing the Chiefs game, it did light a fire in them. Boos filled the stadium, and the Chiefs rallied in the second half thanks to Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, who caught three of his four touchdowns in the final 30 minutes.
Mahomes said the call against Jones “wasn’t the greatest,” but Chiefs coach Andy Reid argued on the sidelines with referee Carl Cheffers to no avail. Cheffers later said that Jones landed on Carr with his full body weight, something Reid disputed.
“I got it off my chest,” Reid said. “I said what I needed to say.”
So did Jones, though he was unsure if he could even tackle a quarterback anymore.
“This is a Christian like league, OK?” Jones said with a laugh. “I’m going to pray I stay off the quarterback. I’m going to have to pick him up and carry him and lay him down out there. But the ref, I get it. It happened so fast and it kind of looked like that initially.
“The ref might’ve seen a 300-pounder land on him, and I get it. I’m not saying the ref is wrong but I’m saying those situations can affect the game tremendously. We just got to take initiative as a league and see what we can do better about it.”
