PATRICK Mahomes is looking to have some easier weeks going forward. After playing in a tight matchup against the Carolina Panthers, Mahomes is looking for some peace and quiet in his NFL life. The Kansas City Chiefs have played in countless one-score games this season, leading to chaotic endings.
Mahomes knows that a win is a win, but he is still hoping to have some easier endings by the time the season ends. “You want to have some blowouts,” he said after the Chiefs’ 30-27 win. “You want be a little calmer in the fourth quarter. “I’ve always said it can be a good thing as you get to the playoffs and later in the season, just knowing that you’ve been in those moments before and knowing how to kind of attack it. “But I would love to win a game [before] the very last play.”
Eight of the Chiefs 10 wins this season have come by only one score, an NFL record for a team’s first 11 games of a season. Two of those wins came on a game-winning field goal, one an overtime touchdown, one on a blocked field goal, and one on an opponent’s foot out of bounds. The Chiefs’ most recent last-second win came thanks to a Mahomes run down the sideline for 33 yards, setting up the field goal.
“He has a great feel for the game,” coach Andy Reid said. “He knows by the coverage where guys are and what they’re trying to do and accomplish with the coverage and he can feel the front.” Mahomes’ ability to improvise is one of his best traits, and is the key to many of the Chiefs’ close wins. “It’s not like I pre-plan that stuff,” Mahomes said.
“It’s just whenever it comes down to it and you’ve got to make the play, I feel like I try to go out there and make the play, and that’s why I feel like it happens kind of later in games sometimes. “You don’t want to slide. You have to kind of put your body out there knowing that you can take hits and stuff like that, but we’ve been able to make some big runs and some big moments.” While Mahomes set up the field goal, kicker Spencer Schrader was left to put the ball between the uprights for the win.
He didn’t disappoint and gave the Chiefs a 10th win on the season. “I knew that I’d be getting an opportunity, so I just tried to stay calm, understanding that it was going to come at some point,” Shrader said. “Then when it did come I was ready. That comes from a belief in the team that they’re going to get you in that situation, and then you go out there and just knock it through.”
