The Kansas City Chiefs are just one win away from the Super Bowl this winter and are in tantalizing reach of the coveted three-peat. Their fans will say they earned their spot in the AFC championship game through talent and hard work, while their critics will loudly blast the refs for seemingly giving the Chiefs preferential treatment along the way.
The only sample size so far this postseason is the Chiefs’ 23–14 win over the Houston Texans in the divisional round, when Patrick Mahomes received two favorable calls worth 15-yard penalties apiece en route to his team’s playoff victory.
Mahomes recently denied that he and the Chiefs get a friendly whistle in big games, but one graphic would suggest otherwise.
Another stat dug up by The Athletic’s Michael Salfino this week also reinforces the case—not just the perception—that the refs are favoring Mahomes in the postseason.
The average number of roughing the passer penalties for active quarterbacks in the postseason is 0.12 per game. Mahomes’s career postseason average is 0.412 per game, by far the highest among all active QBs.
And that’s not counting roughing calls on him as a runner. If you count those, the number goes up to 0.421 per game, according to NFL Penalties.
To match or top that number, Tom Brady would have needed nine more roughing the passer calls in his career and Josh Allen would have needed four more calls. Keep in mind these stats are measured per game, so it doesn’t matter that Mahomes has played in more playoff games than others.
A sizable number of NFL quarterbacks currently have drawn zero roughing the passer penalties in the postseason including Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Matthew Stafford and Brock Purdy.
This concerning stat coupled with Mahomes delivering one of his most regrettable flops during the Texans game appears to paint the Chiefs quarterback in a darker light than others at his position—in the playoffs at least. Stay tuned to see if the trend continues in Sunday’s AFC title game tilt against the Buffalo Bills.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as One Stunning Stat About Patrick Mahomes’s Penalty Advantage in Playoffs Says It All.