Mahomes After Three-INT Outing: ‘I’m Going to Keep Shooting’
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Kansas City’s star quarterback is unfazed after an up-and-down afternoon in Denver.
The Kansas City Chiefs won their Week 14 outing against the Denver Broncos by six points, but multiple spots in the game hinted that things were either closer or farther away than the box score showed.
Despite getting out to a 27-0 lead, a couple of Patrick Mahomes interceptions and some defensive shortcomings allowed the Broncos to bring the score to 27-21 in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, another Mahomes interception gave Denver the football back with a chance to engineer a game-winning drive. While things still ended up working out in Kansas City’s favor, it was a lot more difficult than it needed to be.
After the game, head coach Andy Reid downplayed Mahomes’s mistakes and pointed out that he also made some great ones.
“Every quarterback that’s played in this league a while has a game like that,” Reid said. “The one great thing about him is he kept firing and made a lot of big plays. You can’t take away the three interceptions, but there sure were some good ones in between those. It’s a great learning experience.”
Reid is right in his assessment. Mahomes did toss three touchdowns on the day, including an all-time impressive dump-off to running back Jerick McKinnon and a strike to JuJu Smith-Schuster that left the Next Gen Stats and Twitter communities in awe. At his best, he was a spitting image of the MVP-level field general the team has grown to know over the years. He was building his already impressive case for the biggest yearly award in football.
At his worst, though, Mahomes was erratic. He made mistakes that one would expect from a rookie or second-year player. He was inaccurate in his decision-making process, mechanics and delivery. A pair of interceptions to Broncos safety Josey Jewell and another to cornerback Patrick Surtain II put the game’s outcome at risk. In postgame media availability, Mahomes broke down all three turnovers.
“Yeah, I mean, just three bad decisions,” Mahomes said. “If you look at them, the first one, I probably should’ve just taken the easy throw outside instead of trying to force it to Kels (Travis Kelce). The second one, I really was just trying to burn it and he (Surtain) made a hell of a play. I was just trying to throw it away at someone’s feet. The third one was just bad-bad.”
Moments later, Mahomes praised his teammates for picking up the pieces in critical spots during the game and now allowing his mistakes to lead to a loss. Among those who stepped up that Mahomes shouted out were kicker Harrison Butker, punter Tommy Townsend and the entirety of Steve Spagnuolo’s defense. Although no one on the team was perfect on Sunday and the win was ugly, it was a win nonetheless.
Moving forward, Mahomes emphasized that he needs to find a balance in regard to extending plays. He and Reid both agreed that there’s going to be a bit of bad that comes with an overwhelming amount of good but as Kansas City gears up for a playoff run with high hopes, limiting mistakes is paramount. According to Mahomes, Reid told him to “keep slinging it” and never shy away from being himself. Even after one of the more tumultuous efforts of his career, that’s exactly what he plans to do.
“I think you know with me, I’m not going to be scared to throw it,” Mahomes said. “I’m going to keep shooting. I think that’s what it takes in order to win. You don’t want to play scared and timid and, when you throw an interception, kind of shut down. I think that’s the worst way, you lose games that way. Luckily for me, I’ve got guys in there that believe in me. Every guy was coming up to me and saying ‘keep firing it.’ We did enough to win.”
Read More: Four Takeaways From the Chiefs’ 34-28 Win Over the Broncos