Mahomes lifts Chiefs
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes was probably having flashbacks Sunday night to his days at Texas Tech, where he would scramble while routinely throwing the ball 60-plus times in a game.
The Chiefs needed all of it — every run, every throw, every yard — to rally past the Tennessee Titans.
Mahomes finished 43 of 68 for 446 yards and a touchdown, and he ran for the tying score and two-point conversion late in the fourth quarter, before Harrison Butker atoned for two earlier misses by drilling the go-ahead field goal in overtime and lifting the Chiefs to the 20-17 victory.
“I did not know I threw that many,” Mahomes said with a smile, “but yeah, Texas Tech, I threw a couple, so I’m able to do it.”
Chiefs coach Andy Reid improved to 21-3 coming off an open date by beating a franchise that has long been his nemesis. He was just 2-9 against the Titans, including a 27-3 loss in Nashville last year.
It was only the second win for Kansas City (6-2) in its last seven games against the Titans.
“You have to be able to win a game like that,“Reid said, “where everything isn’t just perfect, and your emotions are up and down and you have to fight through. We were so close on so many plays. Step up and let’s go.”
Things were spiraling toward another disappointment the way Derrick Henry was chewing up yardage against the Kansas City defense, and the way the Titans (5-3) were shutting down Mahomes and Co. into the fourth quarter.
Indeed, the Chiefs were trailing 17-9 and time was running out when they took over at their own seven-yard line. But in vintage Mahomes fashion, he willed his team downfield. His 20-yard scramble on third and 17 kept the drive going, and his third-and-nine touchdown scramble along with his two-point conversion run knotted the score with 2:56 to go.
“When you get to those end-of-the-game situations,” Mahomes said, “you have to try to go out there and make it happen.”