Patrick Mahomes has full trust in Andy Reid's decision-making, but he was ready to go if his number was called on fourth down Sunday night.
Down by three and having eaten up over five minutes of clock, the Chiefs found themselves on the Bengals’ 37-yard line with a fourth-and-seven facing them. They elected to send out the kicking unit, but the oft-reliable Harrison Butker’s 55-yard attempt came up short, securing the win for Cincy.
It was a painful way for the Chiefs to go down, one that was met with some second-guessing. They have one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, and while Butker tends to be one of the more reliable kickers in the league, making it only would have tied the game.
So, there was plenty of reason to go big and try for it on fourth down. That they didn't led to some speculation that maybe the Chiefs wanted to stay away from Mahomes on fourth down for health reasons, as he had been limping around and clearly dinged up his ankle.
In his weekly appearance Monday on “The Drive,” Mahomes said he didn’t think that was the impetus for the play call.
“Not necessarily. We were kind of on the edge of that field goal range,” Mahomes said. “We expected him to make it in that spot, but I think more me not losing the yards and getting sacked (impacted the play call). I think that had more to do with it than the actual limping. I was ready to go if Coach Reid called a play for us to go for it.”
Mahomes downplayed concern about his ankle after the game, and he didn’t sound worried Monday, either.
“It’s good, my foot and ankle are a little bruised, but it’s just a bruise,” Mahomes said. “As long as everything is all healthy and everything like that, I’ll be out there playing. You deal with those little dings and stuff like that during a football game and a football season, so you just kind of deal with it and keep moving forward.”
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