Tyreek Hill made an insane TD catch, but the Chiefs failed to review it. Here’s why
Patrick Mahomes walked into the locker room after the latest Chiefs win, one that would clinch a playoff spot, and ran across his top wide receiver.
In a game in which the Chiefs beat the Broncos 22-16, and Tyreek Hill had six catches, Mahomes mentioned a play that didn’t count — a play that Mahomes, Hill and Chiefs coach Andy Reid didn’t realize should have counted until it was too late.
“Man,” Mahomes told Hill, “you’re so good at receiver (that) you don’t even know when you catch touchdowns these days.”
Oddly, that’s actually what happened.
Hill leaped into the air a split-second too early on a pass that traveled 40-plus yards down the center of the field. The ball tipped off his hands, then off the helmet of Broncos cornerback A.J. Bouye. Both players fell to the ground.
But the ball never did. Someway, somehow it nestled into Hill’s arms after additional deflections of his helmet and Bouye’s wrist. All without touching a blade of grass.
It was the catch of the day. Heck, it could have been the catch of the year.
Except it was no catch at all. The referees ruled it incomplete, and the Chiefs failed to challenge the third-down play — which undoubtedly would have resulted in an overturned call to a touchdown.
Their reasoning? No one knew it was a catch until they had snapped the ball for the ensuing punt.
Since Hill did emerge with the football, as he trotted to the sideline, Reid checked to make sure he didn’t catch it.
Hill shook his head.
“I’ll take the blame for that one,” Reid said. “I’ve never had a receiver that didn’t know he caught the ball. He came off and said he didn’t catch it.
“I probably should’ve hung on to that a little bit longer to look at the replay. I’ve been doing this a couple years — I’ve never had that situation. It was a new experience.”
After the stadium replay showed the touchdown, TV cameras caught Reid informing Hill he actually caught the pass.
Hill, who was not part of the Chiefs’ lineup of post-game media interviews late Sunday, actually had two touchdowns taken off the board — he later beat the Broncos secondary for a 48-yard score in the fourth quarter, but a holding penalty nullified the play.
This one, though, could have been corrected with a challenge flag. While Reid absorbed the blame for the absence of the red nylon, his helpers upstairs didn’t alert him of the fact Hill caught the pass until the Chiefs had already snapped the next play. And that’s where Reid believes he could have made an adjustment.
The Chiefs hiked the ball with nine seconds still left on the play clock. If they had offered a bit more time, perhaps the challenge flag might have appeared.
“They were on it right when they saw it. That was right when we were punting the ball,” Reid said. “It was a bang-bang thing. We didn’t have time to really look at it before we kicked the ball. We kicked it without about 10 seconds left, and normally that’s kind of where you let it go down — right in that area — and go with it.
“I checked with Tyreek. He came off. You can normally tell with a receiver whether he had it or not. Especially Tyreek. He was as surprised as any of us that he ended up with the football.”
This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 12:02 AM.