With 4:32 left in the second quarter of Sunday’s eventual victory over the broncos, the Chiefs were up 27-0 after linebacker Willie Gay’s pick-six.
It looked like Kansas City was going to run away with a victory against Denver.
But then things got a little weird.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw interceptions on consecutive drives, allowing the Broncos to score two touchdowns to end the half and make the score 27-14. And with Kansas City up by six in the fourth quarter, Mahomes threw another interception that gave Denver the opportunity to take the lead.
But the Chiefs defense came through with an interception of its own and the offense never gave the ball back.
“Luckily for me, the rest of the team stepped up,” Mahomes said postgame, via Mark Gunnels of ArrowheadPride.com. “The defense made a lot of stops in critical moments when we were putting them in some bad situations.”
Mahomes finished the contest 28-of-42 passing for 352 yards with three touchdowns and three picks. While the quarterback would like those turnovers back, he also made some stunning plays — like the flip to running back Jerick McKinnon that went for a 56-yard touchdown and keeping the play alive to find JuJu Smith-Schuster in the end zone for a 4-yard touchdown late in the third quarter.
“Everyone quarterback that’s played in this league a while has a game like that,” head coach Andy Reid said. “The one great thing about him is he kept firing and had a lot of big plays. You can’t take away the three interceptions, but there sure were some good ones in between those, and it’s a great learning experience.”
Mahomes noted Reid tells him to “keep throwing it, keep slinging it” because the head coach doesn’t want Mahomes to lose who he is. That’s a big part of what has kept the Chiefs atop the AFC West and really the conference as a whole since Mahomes took over as QB1 in 2018.
