The dust is just beginning to settle on the highly awaited Chiefs vs Texans divisional round. The Chiefs registered a 23-14 win to make it to their seventh consecutive Championship appearance. Yes, seventh! On the other side of the touchline are ripples of disappointment. The Texans’ head coach DeMeco Ryans is unhappy not just because of the loss but also questionable officiating. Post the game, he threw some shade at the refs. A lot of his unhappiness perhaps stemmed from the fine announcement that came just minutes before the Texans stepped onto Arrowhead Stadium.

The NFL has announced punishments for three Houston players for transgressions in the wild-card round. Azeez Al-Shaair has been fined $20,555 for unnecessary roughness (use of the helmet) in the first quarter. As per Rule 12 Section 2 Article 9: Hitting a defenseless player’s head or neck area with the helmet or hitting any part of the defenseless player’s body with the helmet is not allowed.

Azeez Al-Shaair is no stranger to punishment. Last year, he was fined a $11,817 bill for punching a Bears player on the sidelines. Later, he was also fined $11,255 for a late hit out of bounds on Tony Pollard in Week 12. However, the biggest incident involving Al-Shaair took place in December 2024 when the NFL suspended the linebacker for three games for a late hit on Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence that was more than a little nasty.

He even received a letter from the NFL saying the hit to the head was “unacceptable” and that his “continued disregard” for rules governing player safety would not be tolerated. With a base salary of $1.5 million, the suspension cost him about $265,000.

But coming back to the Chiefs vs Texans divisional round game, Nico Collins was the second Texans player who was fined. He will have to shell out $14,069 for Unsportsmanlike conduct (violent gesture) after having celebrated a first down with a finger guns gesture in the second quarter.

As per Rule 12 Section 3 Article 1 of the NFL Rulebook: “Any violent gesture, or an act that is sexually suggestive or offensive” is a prohibited act.

WR Nico Collins was earlier fined around $5,000 for throwing the football to a kid into the stands after scoring a touchdown against the Titans in Week 12; A charge he said was “definitely worth it”.

The third player is Joe Mixon, who will have to cough up $11,255 for unnecessary roughness in the third quarter. Interestingly, Mixon had managed to avoid being fined at all in the regular season. Rather, he was on the receiving end of an illegal hip-drop tackle by Bears linebacker TJ Edwards in Week 2 that earned the latter a $16,883 fine.

Well, the conduct-related fines may sting a little for the Texans players. But the team will be hurting a lot more from the manner of their playoff exit. The Texans HC and a star rusher have fired shots at unfair penalties by the referees.

DeMeco Ryans takes a jab at referees for his team’s loss…

At the post-game conference, Ryans said, “We knew going into this game, it was us versus everybody. When I say everybody, it’s everybody. The naysayers, the doubt, everybody we had to go up against today.”

He was referring to the questionable calls made by the referees. When Will Anderson Jr. barely even touched his helmet to Patrick Mahomes‘ helmet, it was called a 15-yard penalty.

“Troy and Joe, I agree based on what you saw,” ESPN rules analyst Russell Yurk said in a discussion with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on the broadcast. “It looked like he did come up high with the helmet but it looked like that first contact was to the upper chest area. I didn’t see anything there that supported a foul. Replay can come in and pick up a flag for a foul for high contact to the head and neck area quarterback, but if there’s any contact at all, they can’t pick it up.”

Will Anderson Jr. wasn’t happy with the referee’s decision. When asked about the same in the locker room, he said, “We knew it was going to be us against the refs going into this game. I was just telling them like ‘man, we gotta go out there and do much better’. In some instances we didn’t do that, in some instances we did.”

But apart from this, the Texans QB, CJ Stroud getting sacked 8 times in the game broke the back of their offense.

The Texans received 8 penalties for 82 yards, while the Chiefs were flagged 4 times for 29 yards. It wasn’t just the Texans HC and star rusher that took aim at the officials, fans were echoing the same.

Well, for the Texans, it’s too late. Their season is over. But the Chiefs are now headed to their seventh conference game in a row. Do you think the Chiefs were favored over the Texans by the referees? Let us know in the comments below.