The Kansas City Chiefs will take an 8-5 record to New England to play the Patriots on Sunday. It might have been 9-4 if not for an offside penalty in their 20-17 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

With the Chiefs trailing the Bills by three points with 1:25 to play on Sunday, quarterback Patrick Mahomes connected with tight end Travis Kelce on a second-and-10 throw from the Buffalo 49-yard line. Still more than 20 yards from the end zone and with Bills defenders converging on him in the middle of the field, Kelce made a backward pass to wide receiver Kadarius Toney, and the former Blount High School quarterback raced down the sideline to put Kansas City in front with 1:12 remaining.

Except the down judge had dropped a flag as soon as the football had been snapped, and the play was nullified by an offensive-offside penalty against Toney.

The penalty was a big enough deal that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was asked about at the league’s winter meetings this week. But Toney told reporters on Thursday in the Kansas City locker room that he didn’t know he had been the culprit until after the game.

“I really didn’t even find out that the penalty was on me until I was almost home,” Toney said. “I really wasn’t even, like, in tune. I was more worried about what was going on play-by-play.”

Toney said the officials should have told him he was offside.

“Whether it was, an inch, two inches, whatever in front of the ball, the referee got a job to let me know, I guess you could say,” Toney said. “He didn’t make no effort. You watch the video. He didn’t make no effort to say anything about no alignment, so, apparently, he wanted to do that regardless. But like I said, we’re just going back to the details and just make sure we fine-print everything.”

Toney also accused the officials of lying after the game.

“They came back and lied and said they gave me a warning, which I never talked to a ref,” Toney said. “But like I said, we’re moving forward. I ain’t really studying that. That’s small. Full spectrum: We’re moving forward. We’re not thinking about that no more.”

After the game, referee Carl Cheffers said while officials sometimes warn players or coaches about misalignment at the line of scrimmage, they aren’t required to.

“If they look for alignment advice, certainly we are going to give it to them,” Cheffers said. “But, ultimately, they are responsible for wherever they line up. And certainly no warning is required, especially if they are lined up so far offsides where they’re actually blocking our view of the ball, so we would give them sort of a warning if it was anywhere close, but this particular one is beyond warning. …

“If it’s egregious enough, it would be beyond a warning, so really regardless of whether or not he was warned at other times during the day, if it was an egregious alignment to where he was over the ball, whether he had warnings or not, it would still be a foul.”

After the game, Kansas City coach Andy Reid termed the call “a bit embarrassing” for the NFL. But later in the week, Reid said it was Toney’s responsible to make certain he was lined up properly.

“Normally he looks over to the sideline and just gets an OK,” Reid said, “and on that one, he just happened not to, so that would be the coaching point. Make sure you check with the guy on the side just to see if you’re aligned. He’s not lining up offsides on purpose.”

On Wednesday, Goodell said the officials made the correct call.

“I find it ironic that I’m answering a question about the officials getting it right, and they’re getting criticized,” Goodell said.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.