The Kansas City Chiefs picked up their third win of the season on Sunday night, but it's a win that might not have happened if they hadn't benefited from a controversial no-call that came late in the fourth quarter of their 22-17 victory over Atlanta.
With just under 4:30 left to play in the game, the Falcons were facing a third-and-5 from the Chiefs' 6-yard line. On the third down play, Kirk Cousins threw a laser to Kyle Pitts, but he wasn't able to come up with the ball. One reason Pitts wasn't able to make the catch is because Chiefs safety Bryan Cook was draped all over him and he was draped all over him well before the ball got there.
As you can see below, Cook was essentially bear-hugging Pitts before the ball even got to the tight end on a play that probably should have been flagged for pass interference.
Here's a video of the play so you can see what it looked like at full speed.
Despite the apparent interference, there was no penalty flag thrown on the play.
So why didn't Cook get flagged for PI?
According to referee Tra Blake, it's because the official who was responsible for making that call didn't see any interference happen.
"That is a real-time call that officials have to make a judgment on," Blake said in the pool report. "From the angle that they had at the time, they did not feel that there was a foul committed."
Since pass interference is no longer reviewable, officials have to make a snap judgment when it comes to throwing a flag for PI and in this case, the officiating crew didn't feel that the play warranted a flag.
"That's a real-time judgment call for us," Blake said. "We do the best we can to make that decision."
So that's why there was no pass interference flag thrown on a play where there appeared to be obvious pass interference.
That being said, even if the officials had thrown the flag on Cook, there's no guarantee that the Falcons would have won. If the officials had thrown a flag, the Falcons would have gotten a first down at the 1-yard line with about four minutes left in the game. If Atlanta had scored a touchdown, they would have gone up 23-22 pending the extra point (They likely would have gone for two in an attempt to go up 25-22).
At that point, the Chiefs would have had well over three minutes to drive down and take the lead, so Kansas City certainly still could have won even if the flag was thrown, but the fact they got the benefit of bad no-call definitely drew the ire of everyone in Atlanta.
Falcons coach Raheem Morris was asked about the no-call after the game and he decided not to comment.
That's the old, "If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all" answer. Morris didn't say anything because he didn't want to get hit with a fine for criticizing officials, but it's pretty clear that he didn't agree with the no-call.