The San Diego Chargers used trickery, sheer force of will and a fair bit of luck to down the AFC West rival Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, despite the latter playing primarily backups for much of the game. A fake punt in overtime helped the Chargers to a 27-24 overtime victory that punched their ticket into the playoffs as the No. 6 seed in the AFC.
Chargers were in illegal formation when Chiefs missed field goal
There may have been an officiating mistake made at the end of regulation when Kansas City missed a potential game-winning field goal against San Diego on Sunday.
But that game probably shouldn’t have gone to extra time at all, as it happens. Jim Daopoulos, a former NFL referee and supervisor, took to Twitter to say that the Chargers were in an illegal formation on a Kansas City field goal try. That field goal attempt happened to be the miss that would have sealed the game for Kansas City at the end of regulation.
According to Daopoulos, the Chargers had seven players to one side of the center, which is against the rules of overloading on these formations. The folks over at Arrowhead Pride noted this as well, and have a link to the picture near the bottom of the post.
Also of note from Arrowhead Pride is the controversy surrounding the aforementioned fake punt, as many believe the Chiefs should have been awarded a fumble and a touchdown. On replay, it looks like they get the strip before the San Diego player is down, but of course, it’s hard to be definitive on that.
Kansas City had its seeding locked in place from the beginning, but the Pittsburgh Steelers might be particularly upset to hear this news. Pittsburgh won its game on Sunday, but missed the playoffs due to San Diego's win.
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