In week 5’s Monday Night Football loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Kansas City Chiefs racked up 13 penalties. But in week 6, things took an unexpected turn as the refs seemed to go easy on Kansas City. The Chiefs became a disciplined franchise in just 6 days, while the Detroit Lions, sitting in the second spot in the AFC North, weren’t lucky enough. They ended up getting two fines, despite playing a much cleaner game on paper.

In the Lions-Cheifs matchup, the league handed just 2 fines, and both were to Detroit. Linebacker Alex Anzalone and defensive lineman Tyler Lacy were each fined for “striking, kicking, tripping, or kneeing,” all falling under the category of unnecessary roughness.

While Anzalone was fined in the 4th quarter at 4:18 with $12,172, Lacy had a lower impact on his wallet as he was docked $5,722 in the 3rd quarter at 14:17. As per spotrac, this is Anzalone’s first fine since the 2023 season, while for Lacy, it’s his first ever fine since entering the league that same year.

The Dou joins teammate Brian Branch in getting hit with the league’s disciplinary actions after week 6. The trouble started when a Lions defender shoved the Chiefs receiver, Juju Smith-Schuster, to the ground after the game. This sparked a postgame clash that needed both teams to step in and separate them. Interestingly, neither Smith-Schuster nor Patrick Mahomes faced any fines for their roles in Sunday’s chaos.

Mahomes, Smith-Schuster get out clean

With just 37 seconds left in the first half, Mahomes powered in a 1-yard touchdown to give the Chiefs a 13-10 lead. Cameras caught him seemingly taunting Branch while Mahomes pointed in his direction and flexed.

Some Lions fans think that this should have drawn a penalty and even a fine. After all, Mahomes appeared to spin the ball and flexed towards Branch, which many interpret as taunting. Others argue the spin wasn’t aimed at Branch, the point signified the penalty was on Detroit, and the flex is just Mahomes’ signature celebration.

Lions head coach, Dan Campbell, was also compelled to address the incident during his Wednesday appearance on radio 97.1 FM The Ticket. According to Campbell, the league office in New York instructed the on-field crew to overturn the Patrick Mahomes touchdown. However, head referee Craig Wrolstad told the reporters after the game that they never actually received any directive from New York to reverse the score. But the drama still didn’t just end there.

When just around 3 minutes were left in regulation, Smith-Schuster threw what looked like an illegal block in the back of Branch, sending the Lions defender crashing to the ground. This led to Branch speaking up to the reporters after the game, pointing to Smith-Schuster’s actions that sparked the postgame clash. “It was a childish thing, but I’m tired of people doing stuff in between the plays and refs don’t catch it,” Branch said. “They be trying to bully me out there. I should have never did it. It was childish.”