Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was left seething with a late offside call in their loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday – but a new photo suggests his protests that day were unwarranted.
With 1:20 remaining at Arrowhead, Mahomes found Travis Kelce over the middle of the field before the tight end sent the ball to Kadarius Toney, who ran into the end zone to seemingly give the Chiefs a 23-20 lead.
But to the dismay of Kansas City and their star quarterback, Toney was deemed to have lined up in the neutral zone before the game, meaning what looked like the winning touchdown was erased when he drew a flag for offensive offside.
Mahomes expressed his frustrations with the offside ruling after the game as the Bills held on for a 20-17 win, slamming down his helmet and yelling at a referee, “We played our f****** a**** out and you shouts attacking offside!'
Chiefs wideout Kadarius Toney controversially had a late touchdown disallowed for offside
But a new photo has surfaced showing Toney (center, bottom) offside against the Bills
Patrick Mahomes was extremely angry about the late call in their 20-17 loss to Buffalo
However, a new photo from Sunday's match shows that Toney was clearly offside when the ball was snapped.
The wide receiver was in front of the line of scrimmage before the Chiefs snapped the ball, meaning the officials had the right to rule out the touchdown.
After Toney was ruled offside, Mahomes' final attempt to keep the Chiefs' drive alive fell incomplete moments later, and he was absolutely livid on the sideline.
“That's bloody awful!” he was heard saying. “Wildest fucking call I've ever seen… fucking awful.”
Mahomes said after the game, “It's hard to swallow. Not just for me, and for football in general, to take away such greatness, for a guy like Travis to make a play like that, you want to see the guys on the field decide the game.
'They are human. They make mistakes. But every week we talk about something… It's the call. Right at that moment. Not for myself. If you want to have a flag, it changes the outcome of the game.
'I have never had offensive offside situations. If so, they will warn you. There was no warning the entire match. And then you call like that at the last minute?
Mahomes even threw down his helmet in disgust after the final loss of the game
'One more match, we're talking about the referees. That's not what we want for the NFL. That's not what we want in football.'
Referee Carl Cheffers explained the decision in his report of the game, denying Mahomes' claim that a warning should have been given for offensive offside.
“No warning is necessary, especially when they are so far offside that they block our view of the ball,” Cheffers said in the report. “We would give them some kind of warning if it was even close, but this particular warning goes beyond a warning.
'The judge saw that. He saw that the line-up was about the ball and he also judged that on the field.'