Mahomes is the ultimate security blanket
No lead is safe when Patrick Mahomes is on the other side of the field.
Ordinarily, a team that’s up by three touchdowns can feel pretty confident. The team that’s trailing has to start throwing, and mistakes tend to happen. At some point, the sense of defeat is almost physically visible. Go back and watch the Ravens in their loss to the Titans, and you’ll see what I mean.
When the Chiefs fell behind 24-0 early in the second quarter Sunday, however, there was none of that. Granted, there was a lot of game left. But the Chiefs’ confidence and belief in Mahomes is so high, desperation never even crossed their minds.
“In those situations, you’re going to throw the ball more often, and that’s the strength of our offense,” right tackle Mitchell Schwartz said. “Putting the ball in Pat’s hands is usually a pretty good thing.”
Uh, yeah. Mahomes would throw four touchdown passes in the second quarter, joining Doug Williams as the only quarterbacks to do that in the postseason, and the Chiefs had the lead even before halftime. They would score touchdowns on seven consecutive possessions, turning what was shaping up to be a horror show into a laugher.
Kansas City’s 51-31 victory earned the Chiefs a spot in the AFC championship game for a second consecutive year. They play the Titans on Sunday.
“You take an offense like that, you’ve got a good shot at winning anything,” Kansas City linebacker Reggie Ragland said. “You’ve got the type of quarterback, the gunslinger we’ve got, I’ll go to war with that cat and those guys every
day of the week.”
That Mahomes is special is hardly a secret. He’s the reigning MVP, having thrown for 5,097 yards and 50 TDs last season. But in only his second season as a starter, he’s taken command of the team as if he’s been playing for a decade.
He celebrated his MVP season by going home and focusing on the parts of his game he thought needed work. All those no-look and off-balance passes might make for sick highlights, but he
knew improving his footwork would cut down on risk.
When Mahomes dislocated his kneecap against the Broncos in Week 7, he was back on the practice field within days and missed only two games.
That kind of commitment, and lack of ego, makes an impression on teammates. Which is why, despite Kansas City’s other big names – Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill, Damien Williams, and now Tyrann Mathieu and Frank Clark – this is Mahomes’ team, and everybody knows it.
“Having a leader like Pat, and Pat being the type of person that he is, he’s always going to gather us together and keep our minds right,” Williams said.
Sure enough, after the Chiefs fell behind against Houston, Mahomes could be seen walking up and down the bench, yelling encouragement.
“The biggest thing I was preaching to the team was, ‘Let’s go do something special. Let’s go do something special, everybody is already counting us out. Let’s go play by play and just put our best effort out there,’ ” Mahomes said.
“We knew we were killing ourselves,” he added. “We knew we were still just beating ourselves and that we needed to just go out and execute at a higher level as a team.”
That might sound simplistic, but the Chiefs knew the hole they were in was largely of their own making. On the opening drive of the game, there was a breakdown in coverage by the Chiefs, which left Kenny Stills wide open and with a clear path to the end zone. On Kansas City’s first possession, Kelce dropped a pass that he had in his hands, something he almost never does. Two plays later, the Texans blocked a punt and they returned it for a score.
Hill also muffed a punt return, setting up Houston’s third touchdown.
Coach Andy Reid said he didn’t say much to his team other than to settle down and stop doing dumb things. Mostly because he knew he didn’t have to. “You saw (Mahomes) going up and down the bench,” Reid said. “As a head coach, you can’t ask for more than that.”
Well, a quarterback who also can deliver on what he says. But in just two seasons Mahomes has become the ultimate insurance policy for the Chiefs, who have faith he will get them out of whatever jam they find themselves in.