Chiefs’ Mahomes faces pressure in post-season
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs didn’t draft Patrick Mahomes merely to make the playoffs.
Matt Cassel accomplished that, and quarterbacks Steve Bono, Elvis Grbac, Trent Green and Alex Smith went one better by making it to the divisional round. Smith even won a wild-card game, the first playoff victory by the long-suffering Chiefs since Joe Montana led them to the AFC title game in the 1993 season.
No, the Chiefs didn’t trade up to select Mahomes just to make the playoffs. They did it to win in the playoffs. Now, Mahomes gets his first chance when the first-year starter leads the AFC West champions against the Colts — their longtime playoff nemesis — on Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium.
Win and the young All-Pro quarterback has the Chiefs one game away from playing in the Super Bowl.
Lose and Mahomes has to wait a full year to get another crack at wiping away the stink of all those playoff failures.
“A playoff run in general would mean a ton to everyone in this community, including us. I know the history,” Mahomes said, “but at the same time, we are a different generation.
“I mean, we are definitely ready. We know what it’s going to take,” Mahomes said. “It’s going to take a full effort from everyone. We know that you have to capitalize on every single play. You can’t let one play get you down for the next. The next play is the most important play. We are excited we get the chance to do that.”
Mahomes exudes poise. And the rest of the Chiefs can feel it.
“It’s the way he plays,” Chiefs centre Mitch Morse said recently. “Not only his talent, which is uncanny, but the way he prepares, the way he conducts himself in the huddle, and then the guy has got a swagger about him that’s infectious.”
This is a new experience, though. Mahomes only played in one bowl game in three seasons at Texas Tech, much less an NFL playoff game with the entire football world watching.
“So far, I haven’t seen anything that’s too big for Pat. I’m not even worried about that,” coach Andy Reid said Monday.
“He’s going to get himself ready, just like he does every week, to play against a good football team. I’m not predicting anything, I’m just telling you, matter of fact, how he’s wired, how he goes about his business.”