Aaron Rodgers reacts to Patrick Mahomes' meltdown, demands consistency from referees after Kadarius Toney controversy
Aaron Rodgers came to Patrick Mahomes' defense after Kadarius Toney's offside call spurred a full meltdown by the Chiefs quarterback in their loss to the Bills. The Jets quarterback concurred with his Kansas City counterpart in that he feels there was a lack of consistency in the call.
There have been other instances where Kadarius Toney lined up similarly in previous plays but they were not called. And Aaron Rodgers also felt bad for Travis Kelce, who threw a phenomenal lateral during that sequence. But the former Green Bay Packers quarterback was quick to acknowledge that there was nothing wrong with the call in isolation as it was correct interpretation of the rules by the referees.
Appearing on the Pat McAfee show, he said,
"Now, I would assume if there are multiple occurrences of this, that somebody had maybe said something to him or should have, if you're not going to call it. But I think we all just want to see consistency with with with all these calls. But that to me, it wipes out a really, you know, awesome play. But the interpretation of the rule was, was obviously correct."
Aaron Rodgers backs Patrick Mahomes for being frustrated after Kadarius Toney's error
Aaron Rodgers also said that he understood the frustration Patrick Mahomes felt as the offside call against Kadarius Toney caused them to lose their second consecutive game. After their previous week's loss against the Green Bay Packers, this loss against the Buffalo Bills left them at 8-5, with the Denver Broncos just a game behind in their AFC West division at 7-6.
The Jets quarterback said,
"Listen, you know, we all have, do things that we'd like to have back from time to time. There's passionate moments. There's things that. Yeah, I mean, he, you know, wasn't very happy... I understand the frustration. I'd be pissed too."
But the former Green Bay Packers star also defended the referees saying that the officials have an extremely tough job and it does nobody any favors when people analyze things back in slow motion. He continued,
"The whole point is we want consistency. We want consistency. With referees, they have a tough job to do. We're all interpreting these things and criticize these things in slow motion for the most part."
Aaron Rodgers, with all his experience in the NFL, could see both sides of the issue. Too bad that Kadarius Toney didn't check his part as without that there would be no need to revisit Patrick Mahomes losing his cool.