Chiefs’ absurd playoff penalty streak does little to dispel the notion that officials favor Kansas City

The only thing hotter than a ticket to the Bills-Chiefs AFC title game might be football fans’ hatred for the referees’ perceived bias toward the Chiefs.

I caught wind of a penalty trend from Warren Sharp ( Sharp Football Analysis ) via ESPN and had to see for myself how rare it was historically. Turns out Kansas City is in rare air. The Chiefs have gone 11 straight playoff games without committing more penalties than their opponents, the longest streak by any team in the last 30 years.

The only teams with longer streaks in playoff history were the Dolphins from 1970 to 1982 (18) and the Broncos from 1984 to 1991 (12).

That’s correct. Since the 2021 playoffs, the Chiefs have had more penalties than their opponent zero times in 11 playoff games (0%). During the regular season, they took more penalties than their opponents in 25 of 68 games (37%).

That’s a very abnormal disparity in the playoffs, even with a relatively small sample size.

If you look at the entire Patrick Mahomes era as a starter (since 2018), the Chiefs are second-worst in penalty yard differential during the regular season, but best in the playoffs.

This, of course, follows a public outcry after two very questionable hits against Mahomes have been reported from Saturday’s victory against the Texans. Not to mention Mahomes’ laughable flop later in the game.

For the record, Mahomes hasn’t had the most passer roughness and unnecessary roughness calls in the league since 2018.

In fact, Josh Allen has been the target of more roughing the passer and unnecessary roughness calls than Mahomes in each of the last 7 seasons, including the playoffs. The total over this period is 61 for Allen, 39 for Mahomes. They are still among the leaders of the championship since 2018.

The complaints about penalties against Mahomes are probably overblown due to the severity of the situations we’ve seen them in. It’s always difficult to attribute the Chiefs’ overall penalty disparity to excellent coaching. We’re talking ELEVEN consecutive playoff games they haven’t had more penalties than their opponents.

Needless to say, all eyes will be on the referees in the AFC title game on Sunday.