Big leads not safe vs. Chiefs
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The most precarious lead in the NFL these days might be a double-digit one over Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
Mahomes engineered his 12th comeback from a deficit of at least 10 points in the last four seasons on Sunday when the Chiefs rallied for a 44-23 victory over the 49ers after falling behind 10-0 in the first quarter.
The Chiefs have won 12 of 17 games since the start of 2019 with Mahomes at quarterback after falling behind by at least 10 points, including all three games in the 2019 postseason.
The Chiefs are just as likely to win by double-digits after facing an early deficit as they are to lose the game.
It’s a far cry from the rest of the NFL. While the Chiefs have a .706 winning percentage in these scenarios, the rest of the league has a mark of just .154. No other QB who has faced at least three doubledigit deficits has won even half, with Drew Brees’ 6-7 mark the second best.
In fact, the only other QB besides Mahomes to win more than 70% of his starts since 2019 is Aaron Rodgers, who has a .733 winning percentage in all starts.
Mahomes reached a few more milestones Sunday when he won for the 55th time, tying Hall of Famer Ken Stabler for the most in a QB’s first 70 starts in the Super Bowl era. Otto Graham is the only quarterback in NFL history with more with 56.
Mahomes also had his eighth career game with at least 400 yards passing and at least three TDs. Only Brees (12), Peyton
Manning (11), Dan Marino (11) and Tom Brady (eight) have more. Those QBs have all started at least 242 games, while Mahomes has only 70.
Comeback kids
The surprising Giants had their fifth second-half comeback of the season so far, rallying for a 23-17 win over the Jaguars to improve to 6-1.
The Giants joined the 2015 Falcons and 2007 Titans as the only teams to win at least five of their first seven games after trailing in the second half.
The Giants also became the first team since the 2016 Lions to win at least four of their first seven games when trailing in the fourth quarter.
The four wins so far this season for the Giants when trailing in the fourth quarter are more than they had in the previous five seasons combined when they went 3-58 in games they trailed in the fourth quarter.
The Giants’ success has helped the NFC East post a 20-7 (.741) combined record for the best for any division through seven weeks since the merger. The previous best winning percentage was .714 for the 1984 AFC West.
Rookie watch
Steelers rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett is off to a rough start to his career.
Pickett has thrown seven interceptions and only two touchdown passes in his first four career games. The only other QB since 1990 with at least seven interceptions and two or fewer TD passes in his first four games was Ryan Leaf, who had eight interceptions and just one TD pass in his first four games in 1998.