Complaining about officiating is a tradition in all sports, especially when your favorite team is on the wrong side of things, but the way things went in the first half of Super Bowl LV, the Chiefs and their fans may have a point.
Several points, in fact.
Per Pro Football Reference, The Chiefs were called for defensive pass interference and defensive holding five times in the first half. The most DPI and defensive holding calls they had in a full game at any other point in 2020 was three.
There was already the questionable defensive holding call on Kansas City cornerback Charvarius Ward that negated a Tyrann Mathieu interception and gave the Buccaneers the opportunity to score their second touchdown…
Tom Brady’s second TD to Rob Gronkowski set up by iffy defensive holding call on Chiefs
And with 24 seconds left in the first half, Tom Brady tried to hit receiver Mike Evans downfield on a backside go — the same thing he’d done to the Packers in the NFC Championship game, and against the Raiders earlier in the season — test the deep defender to the boundary. This time, the ball appeared to be overthrown, but referee Carl Cheffers called defensive pass interference on cornerback Bashaud Breeland.
Here’s the DPI that set up a potential Tampa score right before halftime. pic.twitter.com/p3YGuYkwaQ
— Terez A. Paylor (@TerezPaylor) February 8, 2021
Then, there was this PI call on Mathieu with 13 seconds left, which set up Brady’s one-yard touchdown pass to Antonio Brown.
You’re telling me Mike Evans could’ve caught this…
Still can’t figure out pass interference #SuperBowl pic.twitter.com/YWxKOgEYKJ
— Tony Clements (@TonyClementsTC) February 8, 2021
Can these be called? Sure. Should they? As former NFL official and NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay points out, not by the letter of the law as it’s been held all season long.
Neither defensive hold called on KC comes close to the standard we saw the entire season for that call all season and certainly not what we saw in TB/GB.
— Terry McAulay (@SNFRules) February 8, 2021
The Chiefs aren’t playing very well anyway, but this doesn’t help. We’ll see what the second half brings.
