Turnovers amount to teachable moment for Mahomes

LOS ANGELES — Patrick Mahomes threw for the most yards in the National Football League this season and had his second six-touchdown game. But it is the five turnovers the Kansas City quarterback committed that led to the Chiefs dropping their second game this season.

Mahomes threw three interceptions and had two fumbles in Monday night’s 54-51 loss to the Los Angeles Rams at the LA Memorial Coliseum. Three of the turnovers resulted in Rams touchdowns, including a fumble and interception return for TDs by Rams linebacker Samson Ebukam.

“I gave them 21 points through turnovers,” said Mahomes, who completed 33 of 46 passes for 478 yards. “It sucks right now, plain and simple. You wanted a win like that over a playoff team.”

For a team that has high postseason aspirations, one concern could be that most of Mahomes’ interceptions have come against quality defences.

Besides the three against the Rams, he threw two in a loss to New England on Oct. 14 and two against Jacksonville on Oct. 7.

For Mahomes, the lessons from this loss were the same as when the Chiefs lost to the Patriots 43-40 on Oct. 14: You can’t make mistakes against good teams.

Kansas City goes into the bye with an AFC-best 9-2 record.

“Patrick is a gamer. We are behind him and we know he will bounce back from this and get better,” Chiefs wide receiver Chris Conley said.