Patrick Mahomes spent much of his time Sunday night dodging pass rushers like he was The Weeknd in a maze full of mirrors.
The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback felt the pressure from the Bucs’ strong defensive front all night, which had Mahomes running for more yards behind the line of scrimmage than what the Chiefs offense produced the whole night.
According to ESPN’s Next Gen Stats, Mahomes ran for 497 yards before attempting a pass or getting sacked – the most pre-throw/pre-sack yards run by a quarterback in any game of the 2020 season.
The Chiefs finished with 377 yards of total offense.
The Bucs defense took advantage of the banged-up Kansas City offensive line that was missing starting tackles Mitchell Schwartz and Eric Fisher due to injuries and had a Super Bowl record 29 QB pressures, which came on 59 dropbacks.
Mahomes, plaiying on a toe injury, was sacked just three times but the pressure he faced clearly made a difference. It is shaping up to be a blueprint to beat the Chiefs quarterback, too.
In Week 5, a 40-32 loss to the Raiders, Mahomes was forced to run for 495 yards before a sack or pass attempt – the previous high for a quarterback this season, per Next Gen Stats.
Mahomes managed to put up better numbers in that game to keep the Chiefs within a possession, though.
This time, the Bucs defense was too much for Mahomes to handle. He also did not get much help from his receivers.
Perhaps the one throw that stood out above the rest on Sunday was when Mahomes appeared to be parallel to the ground when he fired a pass into the end zone that was tipped and went off the facemask of receiver Darrel Williams – the second time that happened with a Chiefs receiver in the game.
Even if Mahomes got the help from the receivers, it still would have been a tall task to take down the Bucs. Tampa Bay clicked on all cylinders Sunday night and played as close to perfect football as you could get.
Sometimes, those are the breaks.
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