Breaking News: Tipped Mahomes pass was not reviewable and did not eliminate intentional grounding…see more

In the middle of the third quarter, officials penalized Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes for intentional grounding.

Initially, the pass was ruled as simply an incomplete pass, but after a crew discussion — intentional grounding is a crew call — referee Carl Cheffers dropped his flag. Mahomes initially argued that his arm was hit while he was throwing the ball, but it was not.

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid threw his challenge flag and argued the ball was actually tipped, requesting replay to review the play. Cheffers denied Reid’s replay request because he indicated that there were no reviewable elements of the play.

(Because there was some confusion over what was reviewable, Cheffers allowed Reid to pick up his flag without charging a timeout and a failed challenge.) There is a lot to unpack with this play, and as Gene Steratore noted on the broadcast, it was a situation he had never seen before in his years of officiating or working as a rules analyst.

First, broadcast replays showed that a defensive lineman did tip the pass as it was in flight. This is not in dispute. However, unlike defensive pass interference, where there can be no foul, by rule, on a tipped pass, intentional grounding has no such stipulation.

Officials typically give the quarterback the benefit of the doubt with intentional grounding of tipped passes, but it is still a judgement call by the crew. Below, you can see a summary of the intentional grounding, under Rule 8-2-1, condensed to the relevant parts: