The Texans and the Chiefs both made history in their playoff tussle on Saturday. While Andy Reid beamed with pride as his side continued their march toward an unprecedented 3-peat, DeMeco Ryans was left to rue some sloppy play by his men as they stumbled at the divisional round yet again. However, the Texans still dominated the headlines afterward, with many of them unhappy with how the game was officiated.

Having upset the LA Chargers in the Wild Card game last week, the Texans had assumed an “us-versus-everybody” mentality. Usually, this is seen as a rallying call to fight against the odds. However, following their 23-14 defeat, that call turned into more of a complaint coming from their players. HC Ryans dodged blaming the refs directly, DE Will Anderson was more direct and open in his criticism, while QB CJ Stroud also didn’t shy away from voicing his displeasure.

CJ Stroud complained about penalties against the Chiefs as they finished with 8 penalties for 82 yards. During the post-game conference, the Texans QB said, “I’m not gonna go back and forth on what I thought was a call when it wasn’t a call. It’s one of those things you kind of notice before you walk in that arena. I can’t argue with the ref, and at the same time, play football.”

There were some contentious calls that went against the Houston Texans. They were on the receiving end of some penalties right from the start. Cornerback Kris Boyd committed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the first play of the game, which eventually allowed the Chiefs to take its first offensive snap of the game.

Before halftime, a holding penalty on Shaq Mason negated a 12-yard scramble by quarterback C.J. Stroud. Instead of a fourth-and-short situation, the Texans kicked to kick a field goal instead. Tight end Dalton Schultz was whistled for offensive pass interference in the third quarter. However, perhaps the most debatable decision came on a first-down run by Patrick Mahomes in the third quarter.

The Chiefs QB scrambled for 9 yards and slid late to invoke contact, leading Henry To’oTo’o and Folorunso Fatukasi to seemingly deliver a blow to the QB’s upper body. However, on replays, it appeared that Fatukasi and To’oTo’o hit each other instead of colliding with Mahomes. Still, the Texans linebacker To’oTo’o was flagged for a 15-yard penalty. Even Troy Aikman expressed his dismay at the decision.

Commentating on the game for ESPN, Aikman called out the decision saying, “Oh come on. I mean, he’s a runner. I could not disagree with that one more. He barely gets hit.” Russell Yurk, the rules analyst on the ESPN broadcast also agreed with him. “The two Houston players hit each other. That should not have been a foul,” Yurk said. This wasn’t the only questionable call of the game involving Mahomes.

In the first quarter, the Chiefs took advantage of a 15-yard penalty after defensive end Will Anderson Jr. was flagged for roughing the passer after making helmet-to-helmet contact with Patrick Mahomes. However, a closer look revealed that there was no contact with the head area of Mahomes, instead, “It looked like that first contract was to the upper chest area,” according to Yurk and he didn’t see anything that “supported a foul.”

Speaking after the game, Anderson made his feelings about the officiating clear and didn’t mince his words. “We knew it was going to be us against the refs going into this game. I talked to you guys earlier this week. I was just saying, I’m like man, we gotta go out there and we gotta do us better. In some instances we didn’t do that, in some instances we did,” the Texans DE said.

For now, the Chiefs have made history with the 300th NFL career win for HC Andy Reid. Kansas City booked a spot in their seventh consecutive championship game, the second most in NFL history.

As for the Texans, their wait for a conference championship goes on and while many might agree with CJ Stroud’s words and the complaints from their camp, the fans were less than convinced and called out the QB’s performance on the day.

Fans let CJ Stroud know their feelings about his post-game comments

The Texans did try. They had a plan. They might even have pulled it off, if not for the penalties they perceived as unfair. Or if Ka’imi Fairbairn hadn’t kicked so erratically. Post the game, Stroud’s HC DeMeco Ryans had a similar mindset. He also took a subtle dig at the Chiefs, claiming they knew that it was going to be them against everybody, but also mentioned that their mistakes undid them.

“We knew coming into this game, it was us versus everybody. When I say everybody, it’s everybody, all of – everybody, whatever, the naysayers, the doubt, everybody we had to go against today. With that, knowing, going into this game what we were up against, we can’t make the mistakes that we made. We had a lot of self-inflicted mistakes that happened,” Ryans said. The calls against the Texans were debatable, but they did little to help their cause.

To some extent, the Texans were the architects of their own downfall. Kris Boyd tossing his helmet and drawing a 15-yard penalty for it was just the start. HC Ryans showed desperation by going for it on 4th and 10 trailing 20-12 with 10 minutes remaining. Instead, they should have punted and pinned KC near its goal line. A lack of big-game experience was clear and it ended up costing them. The referring calls just added to their misery.

While the frustration is understandable, fans didn’t agree that comments about officiating should have been made by Stroud. Expressing his displeasure a fan noted, “Wow, did not expect CJ Stroud to have the same line about the officiating. Thought he was more of a leader than that.”

What will hurt the Texans more is that for a good period of the game, they were the better team, even outshining the Chiefs in some areas. According to ESPN Stats and Information,  the Texans are the first team to outgain their opponent by more than 100 yards (336-212), commit zero turnovers, and yet lose a postseason game. Previous such teams were 49-0 in the playoffs.

The question is where was the O-line to protect their signal caller? He was sacked not once or twice, but 8 times. One fan used this to highlight how Stroud should reflect on the performance rather than the officiating. “Lol, cope harder, bro! One bad call and it cost him the game? No mention of being sacked 8 times?” they wrote.

Stroud had a decent game completing 19 of 28 passes for 245 yards, but the fans were irked by the complaints coming from Houston. “My God. Is there one player on the Texans that has the guts to own up to their s****y plays all day?!?! Liked them a lot before the game but this is just ridiculous,” a fan wrote.

But another fan aimed directly at CJ Stroud and called him out for not performing. He berated his tactics, saying, “Wow. Used to think Stroud was a decent guy, but even he has turned into a victim culture crybaby. Zero respect. Take responsibility, young man. It looks way better than bitching.”

One fan had a more scathing message for Stroud noting, “Lost some respect for this guy.”

It’s no use crying over spilled milk, the Chiefs are through. The Texans need to regroup and start all over again. As Ryans said, “This one hurts,” and the Texans will have some soul-searching to do this post season.