Patrick Mahomes stood on the 1-yard line at Empower Field at Mile High on Sunday night, found Rashee Rice in the end zone and, for a few seconds, the Kansas City Chiefs had stolen it. Then came the flag.

Right tackle Jaylon Moore had been called for a false start on the same play, with Kansas City trailing 28-24 and the clock inside the final seconds. The touchdown was wiped off the board. The ball was moved from the Broncos’ 1 to the 6. On the replay of the down, Denver defensive tackle Malcolm Roach ran straight through the line and sacked Mahomes to end the game.

Reid: ‘I saw him move his head’

Andy Reid did not try to hide what he thought of the call.

“I didn’t see it. That’s one man’s opinion. I saw him move his head, but I didn’t see a false start,” Reid told reporters.

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Reid also pointed at his own team. The Chiefs finished with 11 penalties for 105 yards, against six for 45 for Denver.

“I thought the guys battled like crazy. We had over 100 yards in penalties. We’ve got to take care of that,” he said.

Replays showed Moore turning his head back toward Mahomes as the quarterback worked the cadence, with a slight shift in his stance. By the letter of the rulebook, that is enough. On fourth-and-goal with the game on the line, it looked thin.

Moore himself did not argue it after the fact.

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“It was called. There’s nothing we can do about it now,” Moore told reporters in the Chiefs’ locker room.

‘The weakest call I have ever seen’

Brittany Mahomes went further than anyone inside the building. The quarterback’s wife posted on X after the game.

“You can’t tell me you call that on a game winning TD, oh wait yeah I can cause it’s us. That was the weakest call I have ever seen, you can’t tell me otherwise,” she wrote.

Patrick Mahomes himself finished the night with 321 yards, three touchdown passes and no interceptions on 30 of 41 attempts. The numbers meant very little once the last pass had been chalked off.

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Denver on top of the AFC West

The win moved the Broncos to 6-2 and the Chiefs to 5-2. Denver now sit in first place in the AFC West, half a game clear of a Kansas City side that has dominated the division in recent years. The Chiefs are now the team doing the chasing.

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