Mahomes hurts knee in K.C. win
DENVER — Reigning MVP Patrick Mahomes injured his right knee in a pileup near the goal line before his Kansas City teammates rallied around their fallen superstar for a 306 thrashing of Denver on Thursday night.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid said after the game that didn’t know how serious the injury was, but added that, “We’re good with whatever direction this thing goes.”
Backup Matt Moore threw a 57yard touchdown pass to Tyreek Hill and the Chiefs (52) had nine sacks, gave up a seasonlow 71 yards rushing and snapped a twogame skid in beating the Broncos (25) for the eighth straight time.
His balky left ankle heavily taped, Mahomes completed 10 of 11 passes for 76 yards and a touchdown before getting injured on a successful sneak on 4thandinches at the Denver 5 early in the second quarter.
“Not too many people get hurt on a sneak,” Reid said. “It’s a freak thing.”
One by one, players peeled off the pile but when Mahomes didn’t get up, the stadium grew quiet, Broncos players knelt and some Chiefs stormed away in anguish as their quarterback ripped off his helmet and covered his face.
As players milled about nervously, the Chiefs’ medical personnel appeared to pop Mahomes’ right knee back in place before he was helped from the field and taken into the locker room. The Chiefs announced minutes later that Mahomes had a knee injury and wouldn’t return.
“Excited for the win,” Moore said after completing 10 of 19 passes for 117 yards. “At the same time, a guy like Patrick goes down it can be deflating.”
Before he got hurt, Mahomes became the fastest to reach 7,500 yards passing in NFL history, in his 25th game.
“You feel for anybody that has something that looks like it may be pretty serious,” Broncos quarterback Joe Flacco said. “That’s not just other quarterbacks; that’s everybody. But man, a young guy like that who’s starting off his career the way he has and starting off this season the way he has, it’s definitely not easy to watch guys go down with injuries like that. I hope that he’s all right.”
Mahomes didn’t speak with reporters after the game but he did lead the team’s “breakdown” after the game, when he praised Moore and the defense.
The Broncos had won two straight after a winless September and were hoping to turn the AFC West upside down by handing the Chiefs their third straight loss.
Coming in, the Chiefs were ranked 24th in the league with 11 sacks and they’d allowed an average of 190 yards rushing over their previous four games.
But the Chiefs sacked Flacco a careerhigh eight times, drew three holding flags on grabby left tackle Garett Bolles, held Denver to 1for13 on third downs and benefited from Denver’s poor special teams play and curious calls by coach Vic Fangio that backfired spectacularly.
When Flacco did stay upright to deliver deep passes, they fell incomplete. Rookie tight end Noah Fant dropped three passes that would have totaled more than 100 yards.
The Chiefs even sacked punter Colby Wadman, who had nowhere to throw the ball on a failed fake punt that gave Kansas City the ball at the Broncos 38 on the drive that ended with Mahomes’ injury.