Dolphins at Chiefs wild card observations

[FredFan7]

Weather will be a challenge tonight. Enjoy and game and tell us about the crew!

R 126 Brad Rogers
U 128 Ramon George
DJ 79 Kent Payne
LJ 16 Kevin Codey
FJ 23 Tra Boger
SJ 58 Don Willard
BJ 111 Terrence Miles
RO Matt Sumstine
RA Tim England
ALT R Clete Blakeman
ALT U Roy Ellison
ALT DJ Danny Short
ALT SJ David Meslow
ALT BJ Tony Josselyn

[FredFan7]

Saw one of the officials in KC during the pregame. He looked like the Michelin man.

[FredFan7]

A Rashee Rice touchdown is taken off the board for an illegal block in the back penalty. Offensive tackle Jawaan Taylor was disengaged from his block and Dolphins linebacker Justin Houston had a path to tackle Rice. Whether Houston would have reached Rice is immaterial, because Taylor delivered a block to the back that clearly leveraged an advantage for the Chiefs.


A good call which appears to have been caught by umpire Ramon George in traffic. The Chiefs settled for a field goal as the drive stalled.

[FredFan7]

Chiefs coach Andy Reid challenges that Rashee Rice is short of the first down. From the pylon camera, Rice does just get his arm extended prior to his knee coming down. This was reversed from 4th & 1 to a first down and Reid wins the challenge.


Reid took a timeout to consider the challenge, and had he not prevailed on the challenge, he would have been charged the second timeout for a failed challenge.

[FredFan7]

Dolphins safety Brandon Jones was flagged for roughing the passer by referee Brad Rogers and umpire Ramon George. This is a great call by both officials, Jones dove low and hit Mahomes at the knees as he released the ball.


Passers receive three major protections when they are in the pocket: step protection, head/neck area protection, and in this case, low-hit protection.

[FredFan7]

Similar to the play seen in the Browns-Texans game earlier, this is a play on which defensive pass interference needs to be called. Dolphins cornerback arrives early and makes a play on the ball through the back of Chiefs receiver Richie James.


This is now twice today we've seen early contact be passed on by the respective crew.

[FredFan7]

All three teams had to face the elements in record-territory cold. If you knew you were going to officiate a game and knew you would see a record close to being broken, weather would be one of the last ones you would want to witness.


To be sure, there were some borderline things that slid by, like defensive pass interference that seemed to be a little more than a bang-bang play. But there were others, like when a block in the back could not have been ignored, where the foul had to be called.


In the end, when the game was in hand, it is a matter of getting the game completed efficiently, and they did everything to keep the gears going. There wasn't anything to deal with in the dead-ball periods, allowing them to maintain course.


We will also note that announcer Mike Tirico noticed the sideline work of the alternate officials, which rules analyst Terry McAulay was enthusiastic about the assistance he got on the field from the alternate officials. Some unsung praise which was definitely deserved.

[FredFan7]

[FredFan7]

A pass by Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was ruled to be a backward pass. Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel challenged the call.


Tua's arm was going forward, which establishes this as a forward pass. It inadvertently hit a lineman in the back and caromed backwards. Since the pass was established forward before it was touched, it remains a forward pass by rule, even though it goes in the opposite direction. The challenge is successful and reversed to an incomplete pass.


The fact that it hits a lineman is not illegal touching of a pass by rule. Since it is inadvertent touching and touches the ineligible lineman in an area where it is impossible to catch a pass, there is no foul.

[FredFan7]

An unusual situation came about when a piece of Patrick Mahomes' helmet was cracked and a chunk fell off of it. After a play, referee Brad Rogers and umpire Ramon George approached Mahomes, the play clock was frozen briefly and reset to 25 while Mahomes quickly donned a new helmet for the 3rd & goal play.


Was this properly handled? Not exactly, but there is a bit of gray area here.


If a player has illegal equipment, he is withdrawn from the game (at least a down). If there is equipment that needs repair, then that can be addressed during the next stoppage, unless there is a safety issue. So there is a potential safety issue here. Although it is not explicitly stated in the rules about damaged equipment, we are technically looking at a situation where Mahomes comes out of the game, or if it can be corrected during a standard-length timeout, then charge a timeout.


Since the entire exchange took a matter of a few seconds, it is supportable to just briefly stop the play clock and restart it at 25. This frequently happens during a game (but is unnoticed at home while TV is showing replays) when the offense gets a short play clock which is not caused by their actions. This could even be a situation where a coach needs a quick question answered, they will just give him that answer and reset the 25. The helmet transaction took as long as any of these other administrative resets.


Withdrawing a quarterback out of the game prior to a 3rd & goal, though, would not be the best way to handle it. It would have made this a little better administratively if a timeout was charged (which the Chiefs had available throughout the half anyway). But it again, the delay was minimal and made sure that everyone -- on both sides of the ball -- was safe.


One other point that we have to reserve judgment on Rogers for is that he may have gotten instruction from someone at an administrative level or in Football Operations to pause the play clock for the helmet swap.