Mile High Report
Breaking down the excellent officiating and invisibility superpower seen from the week 10 matchup between the Denver Broncos and the Kansas City Chiefs
In the Denver Broncos 16-14 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, there were 9 accepted penalties and no challenges. These numbers show low official involvement, a clear strategic choice that had both merit and drawbacks.
The rules of football exist to accomplish three task – make the game safe, fun, and fair. Minor fouls, enforced as five yard penalties with no loss of down or automatic first down, pretty much exist only for the sense of fun or fairness. If the context does not provide an unfair advantage, its quite tricky when officials will call these penalties. Calling them is to enforce how the game “looks” for fun, but penalties are intrinsically not fun. These situations can be really complicated, and I have discussed this previously. What I have not discussed is what happens when a team, or player, constantly violates these minor rules. It is very tricky. I worked a game recently that saw Team A have first and goal at the 6, attempt six plays, and then line up for first and goal from the 41 after five illegal formations and one hold. The hold was obviously going to be called, but calling illegal formation five plays in a row is tricky. At some point you want to actually play football, and even if the team is getting advantages from not following the rules (as was this case), the best interests of the game counsel us against repeated penalties unless its absolutely egregious.
This was the situation that the officials had to deal with for Chiefs right tackle Jawaan Taylor. This was particularly true for down judge Sarah Thomas in the second quarter. Simply put, Taylor does not consistently line up in formation unless its third and short or on the goal line. He was called for this once. Honestly, he could have been called ten times. In addition to this, the cognitive load of Taylors penalties seemed to help him get away with false starts (two uncalled in my judgment) and holds (also two uncalled – including a hilarious one where he very obviously held John Franklin Myers, and Myers still managed to sack Mahomes). I do not hold the formation no-calls against Thomas, or against line judge Walter Flowers for other quarters. These situations absolutely suck for officials, and most of the time if you call the same illegal formation penalty like that repeatedly, you will be downgraded. But it definitely infuriates to see the Chiefs constantly benefit from atrocious play from Taylor.
There was a play in the first quarter that exemplified how tricky it can be to officiate football. Zach Allen tackled Samaje Perine near the sideline after a brief catch and run. Immediately after the play, Allen open-handedly slaps Perine in the helmet/facemask, without particular force. From the reaction...
