With four seconds left at Empower Field at Mile High on November 1, the Kansas City Chiefs were preparing for one final attempt to steal a win from the Denver Broncos. Patrick Mahomes had found Rashee Rice in the end zone, but the apparent go-ahead touchdown was wiped out by a flag against right tackle Jaylon Moore. Andy Reid wasn’t buying it. “I saw him move his head, but I didn’t see a false start,” the Chiefs head coach said after their 28-24 defeat.

The replay, however, offered more to examine than just Moore turning towards Mahomes. When Jason Kelce revisited the sequence on New Heights on November 4, he noticed something unusual about the Chiefs’ pre-snap setup, making him contradict the statements against the penalty decision. 

“A lot of people are saying this isn’t a penalty. I want to go on record. This is definitely a penalty,” Jason said.

Right guard Trey Smith was looking back towards Mahomes, while center Creed Humphrey had his head down. For a former NFL center, that raised questions about the communication along Kansas City’s offensive line, particularly with the team using a silent cadence. And Jason wasn’t entirely convinced that Moore’s movement could be viewed in isolation. But when the former Eagles center gave his verdict on whether Moore had actually committed a false start, his brother Travis Kelce was quick to agree. 

The Chiefs tight end’s assessment was notably different from the one Reid had offered after the game. “Yeah, he [Jaylon Moore] flinches,” the tight end said. 

Jason also explained why he thought the pre-snap situation was unusual. The Chiefs appeared to be using a guard silent cadence, with Humphrey responsible for the visual signal. But Smith was looking back towards Mahomes while the center had his head down.

Jason pointed out that Humphrey has a particularly quick cadence. Once he lifts his head, the ball comes out quickly, leaving the tackle to anticipate the snap using his peripheral vision. He could understand why Moore might have been caught off guard, although he stopped short of excusing the movement.

“I can see why Jaylon Moore, I don’t want to make excuses for him — he’s got to be locked in — but there’s a lot of [stuff] happening inside here,” Jason explained.

Up-close and rear angles of the play showed that as Moore turned his head left toward Mahomes, his right foot and right knee subtly shifted and rocked backward.

Under NFL rules, a false start occurs when an offensive player makes a movement that simulates the start of a play before the snap. Turning the head alone isn’t necessarily an infraction, but the officials judged Moore’s accompanying movement to be enough to warrant the flag.

The five-yard penalty moved Kansas City from fourth-and-goal at Denver’s one-yard line to fourth-and-goal at the six. Mahomes was then sacked on the ensuing play, ending the Chiefs’ comeback attempt.

In the immediate aftermath, several NFL personalities, including Andy Reid, voiced their opinion against the false start call.

“I thought the guys battled like crazy. We had over 100 yards in penalties. We’ve got to take care of that. [On the false start] I didn’t see it. I saw him move his head, but I didn’t see [a false start].”

Even Mahomes was surprised by the penalty flag, disagreeing with the call.

“I have not seen [a replay], but [Moore’s movements] didn’t catch me; it didn’t surprise me or anything like that, so it couldn’t have been big, but it was called,” Mahomes said after the game. “At the end of the day, you have to go with whatever is called, but a lot of times in those big moments, the little stuff doesn’t get called like that.”

Moore also addressed the incident after the game, although he hadn’t reviewed the footage himself. “I mean, I got to go back and look at it. I just got to get a chance to look at it, but regardless, just got to be better,” he said.

While Reid and Mahomes questioned the call immediately after the game, Kelce sided with the officials’ interpretation of the rule.

Travis also wasn’t interested in letting the penalty become an excuse for the defeat. He reminded Jason that Kansas City still had a chance to score from the six-yard line and backed Mahomes to get the job done.

“At the end of the day, we still had another play,” he said. “I’ll take my guy Pat Mahomes on the six-yard line with the game on the line; I’ll take that any day of the week.”

He also stressed that the Chiefs couldn’t afford to lose their focus after the flag. “We gotta execute at the end even more. We can’t let the penalty absolutely deflate us and not let us execute at the end of the game,” Travis added.

His comments came alongside some self-criticism. Travis admitted that he had committed a procedural penalty in each of the previous three games and was frustrated with the impact those mistakes were having on the team.

“Penalties will kill you in this league, and right now we are killing ourselves in that regard. I’m at the forefront,” he said. “I’ve been doing this too long to be hurting my team like that, and I mean it’s just inexcusable.”

Kansas City’s penalty count against Denver reflected that frustration. The Chiefs finished with 11 penalties for 105 yards, compared with the Broncos’ six for 45 yards. Moore’s false start became the most talked-about call, but it wasn’t the only time Kansas City gave away valuable yardage.

The Chiefs had also let an 11-point fourth-quarter lead slip away. They were ahead 24-13 before Denver scored twice to take control. Earlier in the quarter, Harrison Butker had missed a 54-yard field goal with Kansas City leading 24-21. The Broncos scored a touchdown on their next possession.

Mahomes wasn’t particularly poor on the day, either. He finished with 321 passing yards and three touchdowns on 30-of-41 passing, without an interception. Rookie running back Emmett Johnson added five catches for 128 yards, including a 73-yard touchdown. Kansas City had 399 total offensive yards but couldn’t turn that production into a win.

That said, days have passed since the game took place. Although it was a crucial game for Kelce and the Chiefs after coming off their first defeat of the season against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 7, the game didn’t turn out as per their expectations.

The loss dropped Kansas City to 5-2, while Denver improved to 6-2 and took the lead in the AFC West. The Broncos had also evened the season series after losing 31-10 to the Chiefs in their Week 1 meeting.

Next up, Kelce & Co. are gearing up to face the New York Jets (2-6) in a Week 9 matchup on November 8, a game where the Chiefs would look to come out of their losing streak.