Chiefs' Andy Reid admits Kadarius Toney didn't check with refs before offsides penalty
You see it often in all football games at any level. A receiver breaks the huddle and as he takes his spot, he looks toward the sideline and asks the official if he's lined up correctly.
Kadarius Toney didn't do that on Sunday.
There has been a lot of complaining from the Kansas City Chiefs over Toney's offsides penalty, which wiped out a fantastic touchdown that would have given them a late lead on Sunday. On the play, Travis Kelce caught a long pass and then lateraled to Toney, who scored. But the play didn't count because Toney lined up offsides. The Buffalo Bills went on to win. The call became the talk of the NFL for 24 hours, in large part because Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes screamed at the officials at the end of the game.
Amid all the controversy, Reid admitted Monday that Toney didn't check with the officials as he lined up.
"Normally, he looks over to the sideline and just gets an OK," Reid said, via NFL.com. "On that one, he just happened not to. That's the coaching point. Just make sure you check with the guy on the side just to see if you're aligned. I mean, he's not lining up offsides on purpose. Listen, he was two inches or an inch from being legal. Like I said, you can argue both sides of it."
Just because Toney wasn't "lining up offsides on purpose" doesn't matter. Players who grab a facemask usually don't mean to but it's still a penalty. And that he was "two inches or an inch from being legal" doesn't matter either. He lined up offsides. It was a penalty. Just because he wasn't offsides by much shouldn't enter the conversation.
Reid called the penalty "a bit embarrassing" for the NFL after Sunday's game, mostly because Toney wasn't warned beforehand. Mahomes was apoplectic on the sideline in the final seconds and kept his anger going when he was shaking hands afterward and continued his rant during his postgame media conference.
Lost in all that was much acknowledgment from the Chiefs that Toney was the one who made the mistake. The officials called it right. Toney didn't check with the refs as receivers usually do, perhaps because he was lined up close to the formation, and it cost the Chiefs dearly.
Emotions get the best of everyone after a tough loss, but it was still a bad look for the Chiefs to so vehemently complain about a penalty being called a penalty. Especially when Toney could have probably fixed the problem before the snap.
