With 4:29 left to play in the fourth quarter on Sunday night, the Kansas City Chiefs were facing yet another third-and-long as they tried to preserve a 23-20 lead over the Jets.
The Chiefs had already converted a third-and-23 on the drive with a 25-yard scramble up the middle by Patrick Mahomes – a play that had five yards tacked on for an illegal contact penalty on linebacker CJ Mosley. But on the Jets’ 40, they were behind the sticks again after, for the second time in the drive, an offensive holding call had wiped out a third-down conversion on the play prior.
As Mahomes hit the top of his drop, Mosely lopped through the middle and hurried the two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback into a high throw into double coverage that was intercepted by Michael Carter and returned to New York's 32-yard line.
But as Carter was running, the side judge, positioned in the secondary, threw a flag on cornerback Sauce Gardner for holding intended receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling prior to the pass being thrown.
“I’m not gonna comment on that,” Robert Saleh said of the holding penalty after the game, a call that sent the head coach into a rage at the officials when it was called.
Gardner said he didn't think he held Valdes-Scantling on the play. "Football is physical, if somebody run into me there's gonna be contact," he said.
Replays indicated there was some contact between the defensive back and the receiver, with Gardner getting a bit of a hold of Valdes-Scantling’s shoulders.
After the game, Gardner had a different interpretation: "The receiver ran into me, it was a collision, the same thing that was happening all game, they ain't throw no flags.”
The corner also took exception with the lateness of the flag, thrown during the interception return for a penalty that occurred prior to the pass.
"I can't believe that. That was just crazy… they finally get bailed out by that fourth quarter, crunch time. I don't even know what to say,” Gardner said. "It's real frustrating, I ain't gonna lie. If you really gonna call holding, call it early. Don’t wait till after you see MC pick the ball off to throw the flag.
"It was like a roller coaster of emotions cause I see MC catch the ball and then I see him reaching and grabbing his flag. It don't really make sense, it don't really read to me, but it is what it is."
He later added: "I still can't believe that flag, I ain't gonna lie, I still can't believe that."
The Chiefs would convert another two third downs on the drive, the second coming on a nine-yard Mahomes scramble to ice the game away. The 15-play drive covered the final 7:24 of game time after Zach Wilson's fumble.
But Gardner feels the flag took a chance to tie or win the game from the Jets.
"Definitely. I know we had a chance to get a stop make them kick a field goal, but shoot, we coulda had the ball on that play," he said with a shake of his head.
After Kansas City's final kneel-down, Saleh was called for unsportsmanlike conduct for walking down toward the end zone and berating the official who threw the flag.
Saleh didn’t discuss his penalty but did confirm the holding call was what sent him in that direction. The head coach was also asked about an apparent hold on Jets edge rusher Jermaine Johnson, especially on Mahomes’ 25-yard scamper earlier in that final drive, but he did not comment.
“I have a lot of thoughts on it but I’m gonna stay quiet,” he said