‘You can’t have that.’ Chiefs anguish over number of penalties in Super Bowl loss
From sluggish play on offense to a struggling defense, there were numerous reasons the Chiefs lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV.
One area, though, can’t be ignored. The Chiefs were penalized a head-turning 11 times for 120 yards during Sunday’s 31-9 loss.
“You can’t have that,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “You can’t have penalties; not that many. … You’re taking space away from yourself either defensively or offensively, so it is uncharacteristic and it’s too bad it happened today, for sure.”
The Chiefs had too many self-inflicted wounds in a contest full of undisciplined moments.
Two defensive penalties on the Buccaneers’ fifth possession were game-breakers. A defensive holding penalty wiped out a Tyrann Mathieu interception, and then a neutral-zone infraction on a made field goal by Tampa Bay changed to a Buccaneers first down. Tom Brady would hit tight end Rob Gronkowski for a 17-yard touchdown pass on the very next play.
“Penalties can change the game,” Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones said.
There were questionable calls by the referees, including a pass interference infraction on Mathieu in the end zone that set up the Buccaneers at the Chiefs’ 1-yard line with 10 seconds to go in the first half. Brady found wide receiver Antonio Brown for a 1-yard touchdown completion to culminate that drive and give the Buccaneers a 21-6 halftime lead.
The Chiefs were penalized eight times for 98 yards in the first half, the most in a half for one team in Super Bowl history.
In comparison, the Buccaneers were penalized a total of four times for 39 yards in the entire game.
Jones admitted to being taken aback at the totals, especially in seeing so many go against the Chiefs.
“I was very surprised,” said Jones, who also drew a penalty flag for unnecessary roughness in the second quarter. “This is the Super Bowl. I mean, usually you let the guys play, especially in the biggest game of the year.”
While the number of infractions prevented the Chiefs from finding any form of stability on offense and defense, the team ultimately made too many untimely mistakes of their own.
Defensive end Frank Clark, who had a sack, said a lack of execution on gap assignments and missed tackles were other reasons the Chiefs lost to the Buccaneers. He did not blame the officiating.
“It was called like a Super Bowl,” Clark said. “There’s no excuse for nothing. A loss is a loss, a win is a win. You can play the referee part if you want. Naw, I ain’t even going to play that story. It’s win; it’s a fair win, man. Tampa Bay won.”
This story was originally published February 7, 2021 at 11:18 PM.
