KANSAS CITY, Mo. – This time, the ultimate highlight wasn’t some no-look pass or gravity-defying sidearm dart through a maze of bodies. This time, to bring home another AFC title, it was all about hustle and grit for Patrick Mahomes.
No, it’s hardly a surprise that the NFL’s most electric quarterback has led the Kansas City Chiefs to a third Super Bowl in four seasons.
The shock value is in the how.
In the final minute at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday night, Mahomes – nursing the high ankle sprain suffered eight days earlier in the divisional playoffs – seized the moment with his legs. His 5-yard scamper to the sideline on third down burned the Cincinnati Bengals when combined with a 15-yard penalty for a late hit, setting up the game-winning field goal with three seconds left.
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He wasn’t supposed to do that on this night, right?
Then again, he is Mahomes. There always seems to be a new entry to add to his legend.
“Watching the play I was like, ‘Well, Superman put his cape on and got it done for us,’ ” marveled Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt, mindful of the anxiety that surrounded his team all week with Mahomes’ right ankle in full rehab mode.
“Listen, it was pure grit,” said Chiefs coach Andy Reid. “For Pat to do what he did and then to have that run at the end, I can’t say enough. He is the MVP in my eyes.”
This is what the great ones will so often do when they’d catch a break for merely being human.
They find a way.
“I didn’t expect to be able to run very much,” said Mahomes. “Just from the way it felt. But the training staff, (assistant athletic trainer) Julie (Frymyer), did a great job of getting me enough range and mobility that I was able to protect myself, and at the end of the game there, I had to run to get the first down.
“So, credit to them (the training staff) and them just trying to stay on it. (We) have two more weeks so we gotta keep doing it.”
Throughout the AFC championship game, Mahomes, 27, looked to be one bad step from a disaster. On an incredible, third-down completion to Mecole Hardman in the third quarter, for example, he rolled left and while off-balance, threw a dime across his body for the first down. Then he hobbled and skipped to the huddle, grimacing in obvious pain.
“I think y’all saw,” Mahomes reflected. “I said the stopping was going to be the hardest part and obviously throwing it across your body, because you have to plant that right leg and twist across and throw. So, that definitely didn’t feel good.”
Later in the third quarter, he committed his only turnover, a fumble that popped up when the football inexplicably slipped out of his hand while he was poised to wing it downfield to Marquez Valdes-Scantling to beat a blitz.
“I tried to pick it up and that was probably the worst tweak that I had during the game,” he said.
“Luckily, it didn’t cost us the game.”
Mahomes threw 43 times, with 29 completions for 326 yards and two TDs (105.4 passer rating) while playing on one leg and with his receivers corps depleted by injuries. He survived three sacks, but with just three rushes for 8 yards, most of his running came while in the acts of self-preservation or play-extension. There were just enough reminders of exactly the challenge he was dealing with.
“I tried a couple times in the game where I was trying to get through spots that I could usually get through and you could see that I didn’t have that burst that I usually have,” he told reporters. “I got the ball out of my hands quickly. I think you saw that, and I threw probably a few more check-downs than I would usually throw and relied on my teammates to make the plays happen, and that’s what they did.”
On his two touchdown passes, Mahomes illustrated just how dangerous he is, even when throwing mechanics are affected by the footwork. He moved the pocket, rolling right, to hit Travis Kelce for a 14-yard scoring strike in the second quarter. On a 19-yard throw to Valdes-Scantling, he came off his initial read and stepped up in the pocket to launch a laser just beyond the reach of a diving defender.
This, after days of drama and speculation about the condition of his foot.
Reid was encouraged (and surely relieved, too) that Mahomes didn’t miss a single snap during practices last week, testing the foot as he pushed off on throws and performed other movements that gauged strength and mobility.
“He gave me no opportunity to not think he wasn’t going to play,” said Reid. “That mindset carries over to everybody.”
Of course, the Chiefs don’t need any more verification of Mahomes’ determination.
“A straight warrior, man,” said left tackle Orlando Brown. “He’s a straight warrior, and we know that.”
Brown wasn’t the only teammate to use such a description. Kelce, who had his own rehab issue to deal with after his back tightened up on Friday, sensed that Mahomes would rise to the moment with a trip to Super Bowl 57 at stake.
“I knew for a fact he was going to give this city, this organization, all the guys we work with every day, everything he has,” said Kelce, who caught a team-high seven passes for 78 yards. “Sure enough, even on that last play, you saw it all come together.
“Right now, I know we’ve got a warrior back there going into the biggest of the season.”
The Chiefs will face Reid’s former team, the Philadelphia Eagles, in Glendale, Arizona, on Feb. 12.
Yet clearly, Mahomes left Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday wanting to savor the moment of beating the team – the Bengals who last year won the AFC title on their turf and over the past 13 months had won the previous three matchups against the Chiefs.
“They’re a great team and great leaders over there,” Mahomes said. “But we felt like we needed to get this win. We wanted to play this team and we got them at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium and we were able to finish the job this time.”
And add another entry to the Mahomes legend.
Story Credit: usatoday.com