What a difference a week makes. After taking the high road following the Kansas City Chiefs' controversial upset loss to the Green Bay Packers in Week 13 (an apparent pass interference penalty was not called), star quarterback Patrick Mahomes blasted the officiating this past Sunday after his team fell to the Buffalo Bills.

With questions looming about their offense, the Chiefs executed a wild, potentially game-winning play with a little over one minute left in the game. Mahomes connected with Travis Kelce for a 25-yard reception, who in turn found Kadarius Toney on a lateral pass that was brought into the end zone for a go-ahead touchdown.

An electric Arrowhead Stadium quickly turned irate, however, as a rare offensive offside penalty on Toney negated the whole thrilling sequence. Buffalo held firm and kept KC out of field goal range to clinch a desperately-needed 20-17 win. Mahomes exploded on the sidelines and then continued to air out his frustrations, first to Josh Allen and then in the postgame press conference.

The two-time Super Bowl MVP believes the officials shouldn't have thrown that type of flag at such a pivotal moment and instead allow the players to determine the outcome of a hard-fought contest such as this one. Many fans perceived the comments to be dripping with entitlement and bitterness, and they did not hold back on social media.

“Mahomes needs to grow the f**k up,” Jeff Pena posted on X. “This is some next level crybaby bull****. Your receiver lined up offsides, the flag was thrown when the ball was snapped. This isn’t some phantom flag conspiracy. Straight up loser mentality and behavior.”

Ouch. The Chiefs, like many top teams in sports, are polarizing and will thus draw big responses whenever one of their games ends in dramatic fashion. In this case, though, Patrick Mahomes (and Andy Reid for that matter) is opening himself for ridicule. Toney's mistake was as obvious as it gets. The referee could not just let the team play on in that instance.

The notion that the glaring penalty should be ignored simply because the Chiefs pulled off an ingenious play is absurd. Furthermore, it is the type of irrational complaint that parents expect to hear after their child's pee-wee football game.

Officiating is an issue the NFL cannot ignore, but the Chiefs dropped to a surprising 8-5 in large part because of continued offensive struggles and self-afflicted wounds. With the Denver Broncos now only one game out of first place in the AFC West, the time for irrational whining is over.