Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Versatile Mahomes trips up Saints
NEW ORLEANS — Patrick Mahomes’ repertoire of sidearm throws, basketball-style push passes, underhanded flips and renowned improvisation humbled yet another well-regarded defense.
Mahomes passed for 254 yards and three touchdowns, and the Kansas City Chiefs extended their winning streak to nine games with a 32-29 victory over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.
“Patrick is more impressive than I could imagine,” said running back Le’Veon Bell, who joined the Chiefs in mid-October and scored a 12-yard touchdown on an option pitch from Mahomes. “He’s even more impressive in person. I’m fortunate to be his teammate.”
The Kansas City defense did its part to spoil Drew Brees’ return from rib fractures and a punctured lung that had kept the record-setting passer out four games.
While Brees passed for 234 yards and three TDs, he completed fewer than half of his passes and was intercepted for just the fourth time this season.
“I wasn’t real efficient, obviously, in the passing game,” Brees said. “I’d say that was a combination of forcing some things down the field instead of just taking a completion underneath. There were some miscues.”
The victory kept the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs (13-1) in pole position to capture the AFC’s lone playoff bye as a No. 1 seed. The Saints (10-4) missed a chance to clinch the NFC South for a second consecutive week and now are long-shots to capture the NFC’s top seed.
Mahomes’ scoring passes went for 5 yards each to Tyreek Hill and Mecole Hardman, the latter coming as the Chiefs’ agile QB backpedaled toward the left sideline to avoid pressure and released a throw to the back corner of the end zone, where Hardman was able to snag it in traffic while narrowly getting two feet inbounds.
“The biggest challenge is when he extends plays,” Saints Coach Sean Payton said of Mahomes. “A 2.5- or 3-second route turns into a 5- or 6-second route. That’s challenging.”
“We knew the only chance we had against that front seven is if we took the fight to them. It was a brawl, too.” Chiefs offensive lineman Andrew Wylie
Mahomes’ second TD toss looked more like a basketball assist, a chest-pass to tight end Travis Kelce cutting behind blockers for a 1-yard score.
“It takes a lot of practice as far as getting the blocking right that quickly, finding a way to kind of push it in there,” said Mahomes, noting that the Chiefs scored on the same play against Denver two seasons ago. “The guys did a great job of giving me a lane to throw.”
Mahomes later used an underhanded forward flip to Kelce for a two- point conversion after Bell’s TD, giving the Chiefs a 29-15 lead in the fourth quarter.
Bell’s score came one play after Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan was flagged for a personal foul and ejected for punching offensive lineman Andrew Wylie.
“We knew the only chance we had against that front seven is if we took the fight to them,” Wylie said. “It was a brawl, too.”
The Saints pulled to within 29- 22 when Trey Hendrickson stripped Mahomes while making his second sack of the game, setting up Alvin Kamara’s 14-yard score on a short catch and run through a swarm of players along the right sideline.
Kansas City responded with a field goal before Brees pulled New Orleans within a field goal with his 17- yard pass to Lil’Jordan Humphrey with 2:06 to go.
With two timeouts remaining, the Saints kicked deep, but could not prevent Mahomes and Co. from running out the clock.