Two possessions into Monday night, Patrick Mahomes had written the wrong kind of career history.
Mahomes, for the first time in his storied career, had been intercepted on each of his first two drives. One was out of his receiver’s hands, but it didn’t matter, the Kansas City Chiefs were sprinting against a Washington Commanders team without star quarterback Jayden Daniels and locked in a tie game.
Then came the second half, when Mahomes and Co. began to dominate, rolling up and down the field for three consecutive touchdown drives en route to the Chiefs’ 28-7 victory over the Commanders.
“It shows the growth we’ve had as a team,” said Mahomes, who led the Chiefs to their fifth double-digit win total this season, one more than last season. “Offense, defense and special teams, I think we’re getting better and better every week. Even though we didn’t start the way we wanted to today offensively, it showed that we can fight through adversity and still continue to play the brand of football we want to play. We have to keep getting better and better.”
The end result wasn’t as shocking considering the Chiefs have now lost three in a row and were without their starter. Mahomes’ ability to put together a masterpiece after unprecedented adversity was brilliant, though.
Mahomes completed 25 of his 34 passes for 299 yards, three touchdowns, two picks and a 104.9 rating. Impressive all, but breaking down Mahomes’ night in half illustrates how drastically the QB changed it from one half to the next.
In the first half, Mahomes completed 53.3% of his attempts for 89 yards without a score and a 31.7 rating, the Chiefs tied, 7-7, heading into the locker room.
“The first half was weird,” head coach Andy Reid said of an opening half that featured two goals, three turnovers and no points. “There wasn’t a lot of money going on on both sides and there weren’t any points on the board. It doesn’t usually go forward.”
As for the second half, Mahomes was brilliant with an 89.5 completion percentage, 210 yards, three touchdowns, no INTs and a 152.3 rating.