Chiefs beneficiaries of forward progress call in Week 4 vs. Patriots
The Kansas City Chiefs were the beneficiaries of a questionable forward progress call by referee Tony Corrente in Week 4.
In the midst of the second quarter with a three-point lead, it appeared as if Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes fumbled the ball on a sack, turning it over to the New England Patriots. The next sequence of events played out in a confusing manner on the television broadcast.
The fumble would be called dead, Bill Belichick was irate on the sideline and the announcers had no idea what was going on. Kansas City rushed their punt unit on the field. Before you could say “Super Bowl LIV champions” the Chiefs had already punted the ball away.
Following the game, referee Tony Corrente was questioned by reporters about this play. He claimed that the whistle was blown because Mahomes’ forward progress had been stopped.
“I felt that he was being controlled quite a bit prior to him actually going to the ground,” Corrente said following the game according to a pool report. “As he was being controlled, other players were coming in at him. And so with those other players bearing down on him, a quarterback is considered in the grasp, and his forward progress is considered stopped when I feel as though the player’s safety is being jeopardized. And that was the case in this instance. So, rather than allow him to get hit by a second and third player, we shut it down and considered it forward progress at that point.”
Mahomes confirmed after the game that he’d heard the whistle called as he was being brought to the ground. He claimed that he dropped the ball because he knew the whistle had been called. In any event, it looked a whole lot different on television than it played out in the game.
Tony Romo and Jim Nantz suggested during the game that Belichick should have challenged the play, however, in this case, the play wouldn’t have been able to be challenged. It’s a judgment call from the official.
“No, because the play was shut down and stopped prior to the fumble occurring, or prior to him losing control of the football,” Corrente added. “There was no reviewable aspect of that play.”
You might recall the horrendous forward progress call from the 2017 Wild Card Game against the Tennessee Titans. Jeff Triplette called forward progress on a devastating strip-sack on Marcus Mariota forced by Derrick Johnson. Kansas City ended up losing the game 22-21 and getting eliminated from playoff contention. It sure feels like this was the NFL finally paying the Chiefs back for that horrible forward progress call.
