Chiefs

Furious comeback falls short: Patriots slip by Chiefs, and unbeaten season goes poof

By Brooke Pryor

Updated October 15, 2018 8:23 AM

Patrick Mahomes wasn’t done. Not yet.

Down seven in a hostile stadium with time running out, Mahomes willed his team to keep working, to keep searching for a way to fight back and extend the the Chiefs’ undefeated season.

Two weeks ago, he brought the Chiefs back from the brink in Denver in the glow of the prime-time spotlight. Sunday night, he was ready to go do it again, to add another chapter to his rapidly growing legend.

He quickly located Tyreek Hill and connected with the speedy wide receiver on the first play of the Chiefs’ drive for a 75-yard touchdown with a little more than three minutes left in an epic Sunday night showdown.

Tie game.

All the way back from a 15-point halftime deficit and a fourth-quarter one-score hole.

The first-year starter was going toe-to-toe with a future Hall-of-Fame quarterback almost twice his age, in his house, in front of his rabid fans howling the other guy’s name..

In case there were any lingering slivers of doubt before this, Mahomes is the real deal. A magician in a football pads.

But so is Tom Brady, and so are the Patriots.

Brady hit tight end Rob Gronkowski for a 39-yard reception with 40 seconds left. The big gain set up a 28-yard field goal for the Patriots as time expired.

Sunday night, that experience trumped the upstart boy wonder in a 43-40 thriller that ended the Chiefs’ undefeated season.

“I never don’t believe ourselves and this team,” said Mahomes, who completed 23 of 36 passes for 352 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions. “I think that we can win within every situation. Coach Reid puts us through training camp and in the worst situations possible. I feel like we have to find ways to win those games. Tonight we didn’t, but I feel like just that fight and that competitiveness and everything that we did, it shows the true team and who we are.”

It was Brady’s 200th win, and Mahomes’ first loss as a starter. It also denied Chiefs coach Andy Reid his 200th career win as a coach in the NFL.

But it’s a loss that the Chiefs and their young quarterback can build on.

“I feel like we can take this loss,” running back Kareem Hunt said. “That was a tough loss and we never want to lose, but we’re going to learn from this. Go study it and make sure it don’t happen again.”

To even get to that point, to the frantic final minutes, the Chiefs had to quickly atone for a first half of stalled-out offense where they made four red zone trips and came away with three field goals. And a first half where the Chiefs’ defense allowed the Patriots’ offense to roll up 190 yards — including 83 on the ground.

Mahomes looked jittery and too hyped up in the first half as he overthrew his receivers and forced a couple passes. For the first time this season, Mahomes’ youth truly looked like it was catching up to him.

His third interception of the season turned into his costliest as he targeted Travis Kelce on his first throw of the Chiefs’ second drive. But Mahomes never saw Dont’a Hightower in zone coverage underneath. Hightower easily snagged the ball and returned it 27 yards toward the end zone. Rookie Sony Michel punched it in a play later from four yards out.

His second interception came at the end of the second quarter as he tried to thread the needle to Kelce in the end zone. But the ball ricocheted by Kelce and fell in Duron Harmon’s hands with a few seconds left until halftime.

“In the two-minute drill, we were rolling,” Mahomes said. “I just got a little too greedy. I thought I could throw it a little higher and Kelce could go get it. And I kind of got hit as I threw, and I left it short. In those situations, it’s kind of him or nobody. I just have to learn from it and know that if I’m going to try to make that throw and make it either Kelce can catch it or nobody else.”

While Mahomes searched for his rhythm in the first half, Hunt and kicker Harrison Butker carried the offensive load for the Chiefs. Butker scored all 12 of the Chiefs’ first-half points, and Hunt averaged 7.6 yards per carry and 12.7 yards per reception in the first two quarters en route to another monster performance in New England. By the end of the game, Hunt accounted for 185 yards of total offense and one touchdown.

Their work kept the Chiefs within striking distance as Brady and his offense sliced through KC’s defense.

The defense, which was missing a slew of players and featured two first-time starters in safety Jordan Lucas and outside linebacker Breeland Speaks, gave up 24 points in the first half, including four straight scoring drives. Three of those went for touchdowns and the final one was a field goal.

“We just have to do a better job,” linebacker Dee Ford said. “We wanted to get them in third-and-long situations, but I don’t think we had many opportunities.”

After halftime, Mahomes returned to the field filled with determination and poise.

Starting with the ball in the third quarter, Mahomes hit Hunt for a 67-yard touchdown on third-and-two just a minute and a half into the period.

He didn’t stop there, finding Hill for the first of Hill’s three touchdowns later in the third quarter.

Mahomes connected with Hill two more times in the fourth quarter, including a one-yard pass following Tremon Smith’s 97-yard kickoff return that looked like it was intended for Hunt.

The two teams traded scores in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter. Hill’s touchdowns first gave the Chiefs a three-point lead and then tied the game with three minutes left after the Patriots answered with a touchdown and a field goal.

But the Chiefs never got a chance to pull ahead after Hill’s 75-yard touchdown. The Patriots took over with three minutes to go, picking up chunks of yards as they whittled down the clock down to three seconds and set up for the game-winning field goal.

“We got down, put ourselves in a huge hole,” Mahomes said. “I’m proud of my team, I’m proud of how we fought to get back in the game. We had the lead at one point and then we ended up not coming out with a win, but just that fight is something you can carry on to the rest of this season.”