The Chiefs hosted the Bills in a battle for AFC supremacy on Sunday and although it wasn’t the high-scoring affair that many expected, it lived up to the hype.
There were several lead changes in the game, including two in the fourth quarter. The Chiefs took a 20-17 lead with less than 10 minutes remaining, but they failed to put the game away. The Bills scored with 1:04 left to take a 24-20 lead and clinched the game a few plays later with an interception.
Patrick Mahomes threw for 338 yards and two touchdowns in the game, but it’s his two interceptions that stick out.
Kayla Knierim and Cody Tapp of the Audacy Original Podcast “It’s Always Gameday in Kansas City” discussed who deserves the blame for the loss and why it could be placed on Mahomes.
“For me, and maybe for only the second time – I’d have to go back through – Mahomes lost this game,” Tapp said (4:32 in player above). Mahomes threw two picks he didn’t have to throw. He could’ve taken three points. He trusted MVS to be a big, tall, physical wide receiver and MVS let him down that led to an interception.”
The first interception came on a 3rd-and-goal situation late in the first quarter. It was a scoreless game at that point and the Chiefs had a great chance to take the lead with a field goal if Mahomes ran out of bounds or threw the ball away. Instead, he threw a 50-50 ball and Marquez Valdes-Scantling couldn’t come down with it.
“I don’t think that that throw’s nearly as bad as the second one,” Tapp continued. “It was only second and 10 and you had four downs and you did not have to throw that ball in that moment.”
As the Chiefs looked to put together a game-winning drive in the final minute, Mahomes forced a throw that ultimately put the game to bed.
“When you throw two interceptions that definitively didn’t have to be thrown, then it’s on you,” Tapp said. “And they got in too many third-and-longs, whatever it’s going to be, but for the first time in a long, long time I felt like this one was more on Mahomes than any other person on the team.”
Mahomes is one of the few quarterbacks in the league that can make some of the plays that he does, but he may have pushed the envelope a bit too much against the Bills.
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