Welcome to the Power Rankings. Kadarius Toney was most certainly offsides. And while I don’t think that mistake is an indictment of Toney the human (so please leave the guy alone) I do think it’s kind of ridiculous that we fight about something so innocuous. A good fan base should be able to accept the fact that, if your player is so offsides that he is physically blocking the back side official from seeing the placement of the ball, he’s going to get flagged for it.
I think that an official should help a guy if the receiver is straddling a centimeter in the wrong direction, provided that the official has concluded all of their other pre-snap responsibilities, including ensuring that there are only 11 players on the field (you try counting that quickly on the ground at Arrowhead during a close-game situation). An official seeing Toney lined up the way that he was? It was probably more distracting than anything else. Like, surely this person is going to back up at some point, no? It’s like a clerk at the Department of Motor Vehicles watching someone loiter ahead of the yellow “stand here” tape. Who does that?
Anyway, please don’t let that stop the Chiefs from trying more laterals.
