Forgive me but I simply must put up another blog post, really, in defense of Chris Jones. My son has texted me telling me that, certainly, the media are going to go insane blaming this loss on Jones. And sure enough, in my original post for the game, here it is written just a few minutes ago, I put down that it was a pretty ding-dong thing for Jones to do.
But really.
Please.
The replay showed that Jones was getting up after being part of the would've-been game-sealing sack for the Chiefs. Then he looked at the Colts QB Matt Ryan and said something. Then the flag went into the air.
Excuse me, but [you-know-what] to that.
The NFL does have a taunting rule and players can be penalized for it, but even the rule itself is a questionable one. Why have it unless the player is going to physically assault another player in some dramatically demonstrative way? If a player twerks and jumps up-and-down right in the face of another player and does it for some extended period of time, then yeah, I'm barely okay with making that call. Barely. And only because I do believe that there should be some measure of decorum among persons together enjoying a nice Sunday outing of sorts.
But please. It doesn't matter what Chris Jones said, the magnitude of the penalty does not in any way match the offense. It doesn't matter what-he-said, period. Could he have said the nastiest things about what he'd do to Ryan's mother? Unacceptable, yes, and Jones could be liable to be fined and have some kind of talking-to by his coach. I'm fine with that.
But please. Don't tell me players don't generally say those kinds of things on the field anyway, all the time. The entire Chiefs team should not be punished in a football game where individuals are raking the heads off other individuals throughout the endeavor.
Do you remember that Chiefs-Raiders game a long time ago, I believe it was 1970? It was the one when Len Dawson ran for a 1st down to seal the game, giving the Chiefs the win and a nice little edge to make the playoffs. Right after he was down, play over, finito, done deal, Chiefs win -- Ben Davidson comes barreling in and spears him. A Chiefs guy then goes over and shoves Davidson defending his QB.
Personal foul on both teams, offsetting penalties, replay the down.
Of course: Are you effing kidding me?
On the next play Dawson and the Chiefs do not get the 1st down, the Raiders were able to get the ball back, march down the field, and kick a game-tying field goal. That kept the Chiefs out of the playoffs that year.
The reason I bring it up is the NFL has obviously changed the rules about this, making those kind of dead-ball fouls less likely to impact games, essentially ensuring they do not negatively affect any plays in which players did nothing against the rules related to the play itself. Good call.
So here's the good call here: Modify this rule. Again, unless the "taunting" is so demonstrable that it is truly unbecoming, then keep the penalty flags in the pocket. Later the NFL can deal with any player one way or another, that's terrific.
You can screech Chris Jones is the biggest lout in the history of the multiverses, you can say that he should have kept his mouth shut, you can say he single-handedly destroyed the Chiefs Kingdom forever and ever, but the fact is that call should not have been made.
As much of a craphole Lucas Oil Stadium is and as much as our special teams schklurped and as much as Patrick Mahomes misfired like crazy today, we can't neglect to point out that the officials' piddle call on a tremendously stupid rule did ruin a really pretty good performance from our defense, an effort that by itself really should have won us the game.
They did their jobs. They got off the field when the Chris Jones thing happened. But then they had to stay out there gassed and just unable to keep the Colts from scoring that TD late. It is stultifyingly aggravating thinking about it, but it wouldn't have been an issue if it wasn't for...
No, not whatever it was Chris Jones said, but for
The stupid rule.
The Chiefs are good about getting over this and moving forward. They know who they are, that's cool. Again, we'll have losses like this -- this was just a really hard one because of so many things that were just not hard to see coming today, they just weren't when you knew they were playing at that place.
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