Texans Head Coach DeMeco Ryans Calls Out NFL Refs After Playoff Loss To Chiefs
01/18/2025 08:11 PM
For the second time in less than 30 days, the Houston Texans came out on the losing end of a big game against the Kansas City Chiefs. But with some very questionable officiating marring today's Divisional Playoff Round, Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans was far more upset about this loss.
The two biggest game-changing plays of the game were arguably a pair of penalties that helped sustain a pair of Chiefs scoring drives. There was a roughing the passer penalty on a seemingly-stalled Chiefs drive that kept it alive and resulted in a field goal, and a second half "unnecessary roughness" flag that helped a drive become a touchdown drive.
The flags were so soft and seemingly wrong that NFL fans, analysts and former players spent most of the game talking about how bad the officials were and accused them of rigging the game in Kansas City's favor.
After the game, even Ryans seemed to suggest that the officials weren't on the up-and-up.
Speaking to the media after today's 23-14 loss, Ryans did a great job of maintaining his composure. He said that he knew the game would be "us versus everybody" but then seemed to take a thinly veiled shot at the game officials by adding "And I mean EVERYBODY" with a special emphasis on the last word.
"We knew going into this game that it was us versus everybody. And I when I say everybody it's EVERYBODY. Everybody. The naysayers, the doubters... everybody we had to go against today and going into this game, what we were up against, we couldn't make the mistakes that we made... When you marry that on top of everything else we had to deal with, it's gonna be tough and an uphill battle."
Damn: #Texans HC Demeco Ryans hints at the Refs favoring the #Chiefs in tonight's game:
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 19, 2025
"We knew going into this game that it was us versus everybody...And I mean EVERYBODY."
😳😳😳pic.twitter.com/n3U0HKcAw6
Ryans can't call out the officials openly, as doing so would result in a severe fine from the NFL. But the wider football world got the message.
"I mean it's obvious to anybody that's not a hardcore blind Chiefs fan. I'll admit even without the refs calls the Chiefs would win a lot of those games but man it just looks bad," one user replied to NFL aggregator Dov Kleiman.
"Thank you for saying the quiet part out loud. It had to be said," another wrote.
"He is saying what we all saw," a third said.
It won't change the outcome of the game, put it probably felt darn good to say out loud.
Related: NFL Rules Expert Doesn't Hold Back Thoughts On Controversial Chiefs Call
