Did the NFL refs favor the Chiefs again? Well, this has been the biggest debate in the current season. Once the regular season was over, we NFL fans thought to move on from this matter, the Chiefs-Texans game brought heat to this debate after another controversial decision went in favor of the KC Chiefs. However, this time, with all the fingers pointed at woeful officiating, an NFL senior official decided to clear the air on the probable mishaps that happened on Saturday.

Yeah, some of you outside the Chiefs Kingdom would probably be fuming right now. Calling out the bias of NFL referees to Patrick Mahomes and Co. However, this analysis from NFL Senior Vice President of officiating Walt Anderson is something you might want to hear out for a moment. Hopping on the NFL GameDay, Walt broke down two calls that, in particular, made all the noise. His first takeaway was on the roughing of the passer call on Texans’ defensive end, Will Anderson.

As per Walt, “If there’s a contact to the head of the quarterback, that’s probably going to be called by the officials. On this play, there was contact…There’s one place in the rulebook that it states by rule that when in doubt. Officials are to call roughing the passer.” So, we get it: The first flag came flying because the Chiefs got the benefit of the doubt. Because if anyone goes back to the footage. They can find that Anderson had either made minimal contact with Mahomes helmet or none in particular.

Then, there’s the other controversial call, which came in the second half. Two Texans defenders collided against each other when Mahomes decided to slide in the last second. It looked like those two hit each other the hardest. However, the officials thought—Nah, that’s unnecessary roughness on the Chiefs QB. Well, Walt also had an explanation for it, “When No.39 comes in, and the hairline of his helmet strikes the helmet of the runner who is already on the ground, that’s a foul. Even if replay assist could help with that, when there’s contact like that, it’s not going to be changed.” See, some of you by now might have already understood what to expect next time such controversial decisions are made.

It was probably because the Chiefs were lucky, or the referees were right in their stance. However, each of those penalties was costly for the Texans. One led to a field goal by Harrison Butker, and another was a Travis Kelce TD early into the 4th quarter. So, don’t you think the Texans should be fuming at the decisions taken by the officials? Well, they were. At least some of them. Leaving their star QB, C.J. Stroud.

C.J. Stroud goes against the Texans’ voice in his criticism of NFL referees

When the whole NFL community, leaving the Chiefs Kingdom for obvious reasons, were voicing their frustrations on the referees. C.J. Stroud felt the officials did what they could have done in those calls, “Those things are tough. One of those things. You know what’s up before you walk into the arena. We gotta be better being accountable and sound. I can’t argue with the ref and at the same time, play football.” Stroud—aren’t you supposed to be a leader for the Texans? When certain calls are going against you, standing up for your team shows that you care.

However, Stroud was apparently too busy to play football and added, “Definitely some things that I would question but they’re professionals. They ultimately did their best. It’s us against the world when you play in these types of environments.” While Stroud may not have gone with a confrontational tone, his teammates and coaches alike had other thoughts. Will Anderson, who was penalized for the first controversial call, knew what was coming: “We knew it was going to be us against the refs going into this game.”

It’s safe to say that Anderson wasn’t the only one who called out the refs directly. Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said some strong words in his post-game reaction, “We knew going into this game, man. It was us versus everybody. When I say, everybody. I mean everybody. The naysayers, the doubt. Everybody, we had to go against today.” To throw a clearer picture of the penalties that were given against the Texans. They lost 82 yards on 8 penalties, while the Chiefs only had 4 called against them for 29 yards.

This shows how much the officiating contributed to the Texans’ loss on Saturday. But what can you say right now other than asking for some consistency? It’s not a request but a plea to the NFL that some of those rules need to be fixed before next season. Otherwise, the controversies will continue with players and coaches publicly shaming the NFL’s officiating body. And surely, Roger Goodell wouldn’t want that, right?