Jawaan Taylor not getting penalized for blatant penalties leaves Lions fans stunned - “Chiefs privilege”
The Kansas City Chiefs' title defense has gotten off to a bad start after a 20-21 defeat against the visiting Detroit Lions.
While the game was close throughout, the Lions put themselves ahead for good after an eight-yard touchdown rush by free-agent acquisition David Montgomery.
The Chiefs still had a chance to retake the lead with just over two minutes remaining, but dropped passes by Kadarius Toney and Skyy Moore, as well as penalties on offensive tackles Donovan Smith and Jawaan Taylor, doomed their final drive.
There was one moment where fans, but not officials, seemingly spotted a Jawaan Taylor penalty.
Late in the second quarter, as Patrick Mahomes was preparing to receive a snap, Taylor, a former Jacksonville Jaguar, started shaking up and down the field and slightly lunged forward with his right foot:
However, no false start penalty was called, leading to fan outrage online:
Eventually, Taylor was caught:
Who was most responsible for the Chiefs' Week 1 defeat?
Penalties (both called and uncalled) by the offensive line aside, the main scapegoat for the Kansas City Chiefs seems to be WR Kadarius Toney, who had four dropped passes, with one in the third quarter turning into a pick-six for rookie safety Brian Branch:
But at the post-game presser, coach Andy Reid took the blame, especially with his ultimately unsuccessful attempt at a 4th-and-2 on their final drive:
"(The Lions) capitalized on a couple of things, and we've got to fix those. I liked some of the efforts, though. I liked what I saw on the defensive side for the most part. There were some good things on offense, we've just got to be more consistent. I'll take that. I'll take this, the offensive part."
Speaking of the offense, the Chiefs were sorely missing star tight end Travis Kelce, who was ruled out of a season opener for the first time since he was a rookie, forcing Patrick Mahomes to mix up his options, both in the air and on the ground:
"No excuses at all. We've got guys that can play, we were right there to take care of business. Listen, it's unusual for the guys that dropped the ball to drop the ball.
"That's not what I've seen from them; I wouldn't expect them to do that. So if you do that, you take care of business there and you'll be alright.
"We worked hard on (short-yardage situations), so we've got to get better. We weren't very good last year at it, and we spent a lot of time working on that. So we've got to keep going here. I'll take that. That's my responsibility to get that taken care of."
Next up for the Chiefs is a visit to Jawaan Taylor's former home in Jacksonville on Sept. 17.