Some teams embrace the ‘us versus everybody’ mentality as a battle cry.
The Houston Texans took it as a chance to cry the traditional way following their 23-14 AFC divisional-round loss to the Kansas City Chiefs after a few questionable calls did not go their way.
‘We knew coming into this game, it was us versus everybody. When I say everybody, it’s everybody, all of – everybody, whatever, the naysayers, the doubt, everybody we had to go against today,’ Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said with a laugh. ‘With that, knowing, going into this game what we were up against, we can’t make the mistakes that we made. We had a lot of self-inflicted mistakes that happened.
‘We can’t make the mistakes that we made.’
The calls against the Texans came early and often. Texans cornerback Kris Boyd committed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the first play of the game, a 63-yard return that was recovered by the Chiefs and allowed Kansas City to take its first offensive snap of the game from the red zone.
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On the Chiefs’ second drive of the game, defensive end Will Anderson Jr. was whistled for a roughing the passer infraction for making helmet-to-helmet contact with Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
ESPN rules analyst Russell Yurk said on the game broadcast ‘it looked like he came up high’ but made first contact with Mahomes’ chest.
‘I had forcible contact to the facemask area and so I went with roughing the passer on that play,’ referee Clay Martin said via a post-game pool report with a member of the Pro Football Writers’ Association.
Anderson Jr. did not agree.
‘We knew it was going to be us against the refs going into this game,’ Anderson said.
Before halftime, a holding penalty on Shaq Mason negated a 12-yard scramble by quarterback C.J. Stroud that would have resulted in a fourth-and-short situation. The Texans kicked a field goal instead. Tight end Dalton Schultz was whistled for offensive pass interference in the third quarter.
But the most consequential penalty of the third came on a first-down run by Mahomes, who appeared to invoke contact by sliding at the last possible moment. Two Houston defenders – defensive tackle Folorunso Fatukasi and linebacker Henry To’oTo’o – converged and To’oTo’o picked up an unnecessary roughness penalty.
Asked about it looking as though Fatukasi and To’oTo’o collided with each other instead of with Mahomes, Martin said, ‘So, (Mahomes) slid, obviously, and when he slides, he is considered defenseless. The onus is on the defender. I had forcible contact there to the hairline, to the helmet.’
‘I’ve mentioned it before, about the late slides,’ Ryans said. ‘Some things are just unfortunate. Things are out of our control. But, didn’t go our way today.’
Overall, the Texans were called for eight penalties that totaled 82 yards. Kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn missed an extra point and missed two field goals (one was blocked). Ryans said they still have things to clean up on their end.
‘Whether it’s special teams, not converting our kicks, or defensively, not being where we’re supposed to be in coverage,’ Ryans said. ‘Or offensively, not protecting our quarterback and keeping him clean. You marry that on top of everything else we had to deal with, it’s going to be a really tough, uphill battle.’
Houston was without wide receivers Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell after each suffered season-ending injuries during the regular season. Ryans didn’t want to make excuses for the personnel losses. They happen to everyone, he said, and his team made the most out of what they had.
‘I’m walking out of here discouraged. This one hurts,’ Ryans said. ‘Because I know we’re a better football team than what we showed today, no matter who we’re playing against.’