The Kansas City Chiefs benefitted from some critical calls during their win over the Houston Texans on Saturday, and former NFL head of officiating Walt Anderson says two of the biggest ones were handled correctly.
Anderson, who last year transitioned from his role as senior VP of officiating to NFL rules analyst, discussed the Texans-Chiefs game during an appearance on “NFL GameDay” Sunday morning. He defended the two most controversial calls from the Chiefs’ 23-14 AFC Divisional Round win over the Texans at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.
The first call Anderson was asked about was the roughing the passer call against Will Anderson that came during the first half. Will Anderson was flagged for making contact with Patrick Mahomes’ head and neck area just after Mahomes delivered a pass. You can see the video here.
Walt Anderson said the officiating crew got the call correct.
“Whenever the defenders come in and they end up coming in face-to-face, if there’s contact to the head of the quarterback, that’s probably gonna be called by the officials, and that’s what you can see here,” Anderson explained. “It has to be forcible, and one of the things we added this year is that if there’s no contact to the helmet, replay can assist. But on this play, there was contact, and so replay could not help the officials with picking that up.”
Most would agree that the unnecessary roughness call on Texans linebacker Texans linebacker Henry To’oTo’o late in the third quarter was far more egregious. Mahomes went into a late slide, and To’oTo’o and a teammate collided while trying to hit the quarterback. Anderson said enough of To’oTo’o’s helmet hit Mahomes’ helmet after Mahomes gave himself up.
“The two players end up colliding, but when No. 39 comes in and his hairline of his helmet strikes the helmet of the runner, who is already on the ground, that’s a foul,” Anderson said. “Even if replay assist could help in that … when there’s contact like that, that’s not gonna be changed with replay assist.”
You can hear Anderson’s full thoughts on both calls:
NFL Officiating Rules Analyst Walt Anderson appeared on @NFLGameDay with a detailed explanation of the controversial flags thrown Saturday for hits on #Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes.
Short version, per Anderson: Under the rules, officials got both calls right. pic.twitter.com/gIL9OidOQL
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 19, 2025
Even ESPN analyst Troy Aikman unloaded on the officiating crew over the call against To’oTo’o, which helped the Chiefs score a late touchdown to take a 20-12 lead.
The NFL is perceived as having a bias toward Mahomes because of his star power. What happened in Saturday’s game will do nothing to alter that narrative.
