The Kansas City Chiefs held onto a 23-20 lead against the New York Jets on Sunday night thanks in large part to a controversial defensive holding call on Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner. And it’s safe to say that Gardner did not agree with the call.
During his postgame interview, Sauce Gardner expressed his frustration at the call, claiming that the exact same contact had gone uncalled the entire game previously.
“The receiver ran into me, it was a collision,” Gardner said in his postgame press conference. “The same thing that was happening all game. They ain’t throw no flags. Pat threw the ball outside of the receiver, MC was there. He made the play and then the ref threw the flag. To me, personally, that’s like when you play basketball one-on-one and you go up to lay the ball up and you wait to see if you miss and then call the foul. I can’t believe that, that was just crazy.”
"Um. We've seen a lot of contact downfield tonight. We have seen a very physical approach out of the New York Jets. And we've seen a lot more than THAT, that wasn't called."- Cris Collinsworth on the Jets being called for defensive holding on the Chiefs' 3rd-and-20 #SNF pic.twitter.com/K5gerpQmRb
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 2, 2023
Gardner was simply at a loss for words.
“I don’t even think they threw the ball my way, at me, the first three quarters. And then they started throwing checkdowns, and the shot they take to get going, they get bailed out by that. Fourth quarter, crunch time, I don’t even know what to say,” Gardner said.
The NFL world had plenty to say about Gardner’s complaints.
there’s a (ridiculous but relevant) rule in Chicago pickup that if you call foul and it goes in, you don’t get the bucket.
This is a great comp, Sauce.
As an aside, Chicago pickup was the worst of any city I’ve ever played and it wasn’t even close https://t.co/rDuJzyCgeP
— Josh Tepper (@jtep24) October 2, 2023
https://twitter.com/FNDJ57/status/1708741393919910027?s=20
hahaha, regardless of if you think it's a hold or not, that is a pretty great analogy.
— teejay1727 (@taylorjones1727) October 2, 2023
Told my son if jets don’t INT flag stays in his pocket
— Mark Deyette (@mark_deyette) October 2, 2023
He's right.
— ☀️ go sun 🏀 (@sh0w_must_g0_0n) October 2, 2023
I didn’t hear a single lie
— TheLyonKing5812🏆 (@TheLyonKing5812) October 2, 2023
As a result of the crucial call, the Chiefs were given a first down on what was an interception on a long third-down conversion attempt. They were able to run out the rest of the clock and secure the victory.
