From his worst to his best, how KC Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes turned around his night
They played an instant classic at SoFi Stadium on Thursday night, the sort of game that left normally subdued Chiefs coach Andy Reid giddy by his standards.
“If I could jump, I would jump,” he said after the Chiefs beat the Chargers 34-28 in overtime.
That’s also because it also was the sort of game that lays bare just who your team is and what it has when it gets down to the heart of the matter, the kind of inflection point that will be on our minds if the Chiefs are back in this stadium when it hosts the Super Bowl here on Feb. 13.
After the Chiefs’ seventh win in a row made them the first team in the AFC to win 10 games this season, Reid also semi-jokingly gave two separate shoutouts to defensive end Melvin Ingram for winning the coin toss before the game and into overtime.
Playful as Reid was being, that was reflective of the game of inches and chance and mostly grit that this was. And he could point to any number of factors or forces that were testament to the makeup of a team that has long since purged its 3-4 start for the promising trajectory most had anticipated after back-to-back Super Bowl appearances.
The defense, playing without three key starters, produced three goal-line stands, including two fourth-down stops and a forced fumble.
And Travis Kelce ran amok after being hushed up the last few weeks: He scored the game-winning touchdown on a dazzling 34-yard catch-and-run after his similarly riveting 69-yard catch set up an earlier key TD. He scored the touchdown with 1 minute, 16 seconds left in regulation that enabled the Chiefs to send the game to overtime.
But the portrait of resilience, and a resounding reminder of what’s to be found in the DNA of these Chiefs, was quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who threw for 410 yards … including 203 after the third quarter.
In a season still featuring a wealth of Mahomes highlights but also marked by some flux in his work to counter the infinite defensive adjustments being made to contain him, this became one of his vintage “I don’t believe what I just saw” games — a sense enhanced by his brutal sequence late in the third quarter and early in the fourth quarter that might have unnerved someone who isn’t irrepressible.
“That’s what you love about him,” Reid said. “He’s never out of it mentally.”
Even when it might appear otherwise, at least momentarily, like it did on back-to-back drives that could have wrecked the Chiefs’ hopes.
With the Chargers leading 14-13, the Chiefs’ defense bristled to stop them on fourth and 2 at the Kansas City 28, one of three times (on five attempts) the Chiefs stopped the Chargers on downs.
It looked more and more like a pivot point in the game as the Chiefs drove to the Los Angeles 2 and opted to go for it on fourth down. The play-call worked, with Mecole Hardman left open in the flat, but Mahomes rather shockingly fired it in the ground like a wild pitch low and away.
“That was just a really (poor) throw,” said Mahomes, who has a knack for candor with his mistakes. “The motion was just a tad late; I let it go a little too long. And he was wide open, so I tried to hurry up and just throw it to him and I didn’t grab the ball the way I wanted to. So I overstrided and just threw it straight into the ground.”
He later added, “I promise you I felt as bad as anyone … and knew how bad it looked.”
No sooner had the play ended than Kelce ran over to Mahomes and urged him on, telling him, “Let’s show that heart … We believe in you.” But Mahomes could only grin as he retold that part of the story.
Because next thing you know he’s back out there after the Chiefs defense forced a fumble at the 1-yard line, but, oof, he essentially threw the ball right into the anticipating arms of defender Uchenna Nwosu to tee up a Chargers TD with 9:29 left.
That made it 21-13, and the last few seasons few Chiefs fans would have felt panic or even distress after all the insane postseason comebacks and narrow victories.
But that sense of inevitability in the clutch had been punctured by consecutive early season losses late at Baltimore and at Arrowhead against the Chargers, who entered the game Thursday just a game behind the Chiefs and designs on breaking the Chiefs stranglehold on the AFC West the last five seasons and counting.
So this was a fresh proving ground, both for the Chiefs and Mahomes. And he flourished in the way that should leave everyone remembering that anyone who ever counts him out, even on a day when he regrets a few passes, does so foolishly.
Because on the next three drives, in a span of 10:44 overall, Mahomes was the catalyst on three 75-yard touchdown drives.
Not to mention the two-point conversion pass to Clyde Edwards-Helaire that tied it 21-21 with 7:44 left in itself was a monument to the improv and moxie that inform Mahomes’ style. If the play seemed to go on for about 30 seconds, it’s partly because almost none of it went to script: Mahomes said in hindsight that Kelce, Hardman and Tyreek Hill each had been open at some point during the play, only for him to fail to deliver to them before turning to Edwards-Helaire … who was supposed to be blocking.
It wasn’t perfect, in other words, but it proved a perfect response to the way some things sometimes just go awry.
Much like the rest of his work down the stretch, highlighted by that 69-yard pass to Kelce, the TD pass to Hill, a 40-yard pass to Hill and Mahomes’ 39-yard run to pave the way to the game-tying TD pass to Kelce.
“It’s the recipe he uses to play well,” Chargers coach Brandon Staley said. “When you allow loose plays by the quarterback, then you see numbers like he had today because most of his yardage is that way. He gets those types of explosions outside the framework of the play.”
Then Ingram won a coin toss, and five plays later it was sudden death for the Chargers. And more affirmation of life for the Chiefs after rumors of their demise had been greatly exaggerated earlier this season.
And even at times on Thursday, before Mahomes wowed us again.
Not just with his overall play but with the resolve that defines him as much as his arm and is the epicenter of why this team is capable of more glory in the weeks to come.
“There are so many little things I appreciate about him,” Reid said, pointing to his spirit. “That’s why he’s one of the greatest.”
It’s just that every once in a while, he added with a smile, “he throws a bad ball.”
More tellingly, though, virtually every time he does he moves on to what’s in front of him … which turns out to be plenty.
“Whenever you still have a fighting chance,” Mahomes said, “you just have to believe you’re going to go out there and make it happen.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 2:18 AM with the headline "From his worst to his best, how KC Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes turned around his night."