The Kansas City Chiefs pulled off a solid win against the San Francisco 49ers, winning 28-18. A big reason for that was the play of quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Despite throwing two interceptions, Mahomes rattled off 39 yards on the ground with a rushing touchdown.
The touchdown play was quite spectacular, but one Hall of Famer has taken umbrage with the play. Former Indianapolis Colts legend and defensive end Dwight Freeney called out the play, and stated that Mahomes is “taking advantage of soft a** rules” the NFL has in place to protect quarterbacks.
Freeney joined “Up and Adams” with Kay Adams, where he stated the issues that led to Mahomes being able to run in for a rushing touchdown when several 49ers defenders were barreling down on him.
Freeney spoke on the fact that the 49ers could have easily tackled Mahomes, but they chose not to based on the rules that protect quarterbacks.
“This is 100% a product of a couple of things. One, you can’t touch quarterbacks. Everybody is scared to hit quarterbacks. You don’t want to hit them, especially when it comes close to the sideline, because they protect them so much. So, they are probably thinking at this point, ‘Hey, you know what, he’s gonna run out of bounds. We don’t want to get a penalty. Let me just tip-toe over there and he’s gonna run out of bounds.’ And Patrick took advantage of the soft a** rules they have for the quarterbacks.”
Freeney is indicating that tackling a quarterback is always a bit dicey, but tackling them on the sideline is always even more dangerous. If a quarterback goes to run out of bounds, but is hit anyway, it can usually lead to a late hit call or roughing the passer. Depending on how Mahomes is hit, there is a high chance he gets a favorable call being that he is a quarterback.
The 49ers should have at least allowed themselves the ability to bump Mahomes out of the bounds, but they instead seemingly backed off. This led to the rushing touchdown and the Chiefs leaping in front of the 49ers.
Freeney might be speaking truth to the way that quarterbacks are protected in the NFL, but Mahomes is just utilizing the rules set in place. Regardless of his running in for a touchdown, no one knows what would have happened if he got hit, because he didn’t get hit.