Mahomes finds way to forge super finish
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — They were celebrating the passage of time as much as football at this Super Bowl — 100-year-old war veterans at midfield for the pregame coin flip, a 50-years-young pop diva handling halftime, and, of course, a quarterback who turns 25 this year saving the best part of the show for last.
That quarterback is Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs.
It is easy, especially after the improbable, blink-and-you-miss-it escape act he engineered Sunday to win the title, to say Mahomes — a mobile, dual threat with a rocket arm — is what the perfect quarterback will look like as the NFL gets ready to embark on its second century of football next season.
But what Mahomes did on a cool, crisp evening in South Florida was grounded in the most basic of sports concepts, one that harkens to the days of leather helmets and long bus rides to the games.
“My mindset,” Mahomes said, “is always to play and compete to the
very end.”
And so he did. He injected life into a stymied offense that looked all but done-for, coaxed three touchdowns out of that offense over the short span of 5 minutes, 1 second late in the fourth quarter and pulled out a 31-20 victory against the San Francisco 49ers in a game that seemed all but lost.
Three times during this postseason, Mahomes and the Chiefs have trailed by 10 points or more, and all three times they’ve come back to win by double-digits themselves. That’s a first. But even that history-making feat doesn’t do justice to what Mahomes pulled off in the final game of the NFL’s much-celebrated centennial.
After Mahomes threw the first postseason interception of his three-year-old career — “I hit him right between the ‘5’ and the ‘4,’” he said of the pick to linebacker Fred Warner — the 49ers drove 55 methodical yards to take a 2010 lead.
There was 2:35 left on in the third quarter and the Chiefs, used to buzzing up and down the field to the tune of 51 and 35 points in the two earlier games this postseason, had gained 187 yards and amassed only 136 passing. They had scored a measly touchdown and a field goal and hadn’t cracked a single play longer than 19 yards.
“I wasn’t feeling good about it at all,” said receiver Tyreek Hill, who would soon prove critical in turning around the game. “I told Pat, ‘It’s 20-10 with seven minutes left — c’mon bro,‘ And all Pat did, he just told me to believe.”
Hill believed. And he started running.
Up against a defense that had allowed a total of eight completions on downfield throws all season, the receiver with track-star speed somehow found a soft spot deep in the 49ers secondary. Mahomes, harassed all game into quick, off-target throws, dropped 13 yards behind the line of scrimmage, surveyed the field — then stepped up and heaved it. The ball dropped soft as a feather into Hill’s arms. Four plays later, Kansas City, only moments earlier thinking of concession speeches, was within three points.
There was 6:13 left in the game.
“I’m not sure exactly what happened,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said, when asked to reflect on the play that swung the momentum.
Rarely has a game turned so rapidly. Rarely has a team still behind on the scoreboard seemed so destined to win.
It all happened so fast, in fact, that everything before it felt like a mirage.
Hours earlier, to celebrate its 100th year, the NFL brought four centenarian World War II veterans to midfield to preside over the pregame coin flip. Halftime featured a hip-shaking, pole-climbing celebration of Latina heritage, courtesy of 43-yearold Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, who hardly looked like the 50-year-old she is — where has the time gone?
Chiefs fans had been asking the same question for a while now.
It had been 50 years since their team previously appeared in, and won, the Super Bowl. Mahomes, the quarterback who coach Andy Reid handpicked and traded away draft picks to get, was supposed to change all that.
But when the smoke cleared from J-Lo and the third quarter started, he was no better.