The Kansas City Chiefs nearly had a meltdown for the ages against a bad team, and Patrick Mahomes is taking the blame for it.
Mahomes and the Chiefs went up 27-0 against the Broncos on Sunday with 4:32 still to go in the second quarter, but it took less than three minutes for things to begin unraveling.
In the waning minutes of the half, Mahomes threw interceptions on back-to-back drives, with the Broncos scoring touchdowns after both picks. What looked like a blowout became just a two-possession game going into halftime, and Denver got the ball out of the break and immediately scored to cut the deficit to 27-21.
Asked in his weekly appearance on “The Drive” to explain how the Chiefs nearly gave away the lead, Mahomes pointed to himself.
“I threw the two interceptions," Mahomes said. "The momentum you get off one interception is real, and then to throw two of them and get them to where all of the sudden it’s 27-14, got to give them a short field with momentum in their favor. And then they get the ball out of half, score again it’s 27-21 and now it’s a ballgame.”
After the Broncos cut the Chiefs lead to six, the scoring stopped until a Kansas City touchdown late in the third quarter gave them enough breathing room to secure an eventual 34-28 win.
But things got dicey late, with Mahomes throwing his third interception of the game just beyond the midway point of the fourth with the Broncos still down just six. If not for a Russell Wilson interception shortly thereafter, we could be talking about a different end result.
Although it didn’t result in points for Denver, that final interception is the one Mahomes wants back most.
“Definitely the last one,” Mahomes said. “Just because of the situation. Knowing we’re in field goal range, especially at altitude, if I throw the ball away – no one was open on that play, the defense won the rep – so if I throw the ball away I give Harrison (Butker) the chance to knock the field goal through and put the game away. That one, it was more not even the throw, it was the decision at that time was one that I can’t make happen again."
The Chiefs avoided the doomsday scenario, but it’s clear Mahomes doesn’t want to dance with danger like that again anytime soon.
“In this league, there are great players on each side,” Mahomes said. “Even when it’s a big lead, you have to keep executing at a high level if you want to continue to build on the lead. I didn’t do that, and if you don’t execute you get into a tight football game, and then you just keep battling and find a way to win it.
“I was proud of our guys, I put us in some bad positions but our guys continued to fight. Even when they had all the momentum in their favor, we were able to get some stops so that the offense could go down and score another touchdown.”
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