Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are facing an uphill battle against the 8-2 Colts on Sunday afternoon. While Indianapolis continues to prove why it's leading the league in total yards and in points, Mahomes's offense is still struggling and trying to find some consistency in the second half of the season.
The Chiefs are down 20-9 against the Colts in the fourth quarter and desperately looking to get their first touchdown on the board, after seeing one get taken away due to Jawaan Taylor's questionable facemask penalty.
While one could argue that the era of the Chiefs getting preferential treatment from the refs is over, one could also point to another soft roughing the passer call on Mahomes that had NFL fans pretty outraged.
Late in the second quarter, Mahomes threw an incomplete pass to Robert Tonyan but got hit by Colts defensive tackle Grove Stewart shortly after releasing the ball. The refs penalized Stewart with a roughing the passer penalty to give the Chiefs a free 15 yards.
CBS announcers Jim Nantz and Tony Romo noted on the broadcast that "it's gotta be the weight issue" that led to the refs throwing a flag. "It's the extra stuff, the weight on the bottom," Romo said.
Here's what the NFL rulebook says about a defender putting their weight on a quarterback on a roughing the passer penalty:
"A defensive player must not unnecessarily or violently throw him down or land on top of him with all or most of the defender’s weight. Instead, the defensive player must strive to fall to the side of the quarterback’s body, or to brace his fall with his arms to avoid landing on the quarterback with all or most of his body weight."
Despite the "weight issue" that allegedly led to the roughing call, NFL fans were not happy to see Mahomes seemingly benefit from special treatment and get another soft call in a tight game:
Mahomes also drew another roughing the passer penalty later in the game after a Colts defender tackled him low. He currently has just 177 passing yards, no touchdowns and one interception.
