KC Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes’ biggest playoff lesson came in a game he didn’t start
At the onset of every postseason, and he’s embarking on his 17th this week, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid administers to his team some version of the same warning.
The games are faster in the playoffs. The intensity swells as the magnitude grows, and the end result is an increase in the speed of the game ...
It’s a speech his veteran players have heard a half-dozen times now. And so entering his fourth postseason, quarterback Patrick Mahomes reminds his teammates about the speed they’ll see in the playoffs.
But with a twist.
Mahomes knows how quickly a playoff game can change. How one play can turn everything in your favor. Or how quickly it can all be over.
There was Wasp in Super Bowl LIV.
His own scramble down the sideline in the AFC Championship Game.
Houston’s failed fake punt in the Divisional Round.
Two years ago, the Chiefs’ Super Bowl run was littered with game-changing moments.
But Mahomes didn’t pick any of those as his Exhibit A. No, his first lesson about playoff football came earlier — in a game he didn’t even start.
In his rookie season, when Mahomes served as the backup to Alex Smith, the Chiefs led the Titans 21-3 at halftime in the Wild Card Round. Then came the game-changing play — and we’ll understand if you avert your eyes for a couple of sentences here. Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota threw a pass that Chiefs safety Jordan Lucas deflected ... right back to Mariota, who caught the ball, tucked it between his arms and dove in for a touchdown.
The Titans scored the game’s final 19 points and escaped with a 22-21 win.
“Those plays changed the outcome of that game,” Mahomes said. “You know, those little things, they matter. You have to make sure you focus on the details (and) do what you can in order to find a way to win a game.”
That’s stuck with Mahomes, enough that on Wednesday, he referenced the Mariota play and another in which former Chiefs linebacker Derrick Johnson jarred the ball loose from Mariota, only to learn forward progress had been called.
Each play was a fluke occurrence, to be sure, and both came with Mahomes standing on the sideline. But there’s still something to be gleaned from them.
Be careful. In an instant, it can turn, and before you know it, you’ve lost control of a game that can end the season.
“I know it’s like that in the regular season, but in the playoffs, it even goes to a different level,” Mahomes said. “You know that one play can really end your season or keep it going, so you try to limit your mistakes as much as possible, knowing that it’s going to be a battle to the very end of every single playoff game.”
It’s a particularly important note this year. The Chiefs spent half their season ranked among the league’s most turnover-prone teams — and they can point to a single play in various games as the reason for multiple early-season losses.
But there’s a flip side to it, too. Mahomes didn’t arrive here by being cautious. He thinks aggressively, even if the throws he makes are typically not.
And you don’t want to strip that.
“At the same time, you want to be loose; you want to have fun; you want to enjoy it,” Mahomes said. “Because you don’t know how many more of these games you’re going to get in the playoffs. And I want to make sure I’m ready to enjoy all of them.”
This story was originally published January 13, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "KC Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes’ biggest playoff lesson came in a game he didn’t start."