On the way to the worst game of his career, Patrick Mahomes wins Super Bowl MVP
Patrick Mahomes had put the Chiefs in a position to slice into a 10-point deficit when he tossed his second interception of the game with about 12 minutes remaining.
At that point, Mahomes was statistically having the worst game of his three NFL seasons. He hadn’t thrown a touchdown pass. His passer rating on pace to be a career low.
Poof. He became Patrick Mahomes.
Two touchdown passes and three touchdown drives starting with a possession that began with 8:53 on the clock turned Mahomes into a Super Bowl hero.
The Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers 31-20 to capture Super Bowl LIV, and this time Mahomes waited until the fourth quarter to begin his magic. The Chiefs fell behind by double digits in their previous two playoff games, but that was early and they had taken the lead by halftime against the Houston Texans and Tennessee Titans.
Not so on Sunday. But even when things looked the bleakest, Mahomes was at his most encouraging.
“He was telling us to believe,” Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill said. “We were down 20-10 and he was telling us to believe in the fourth quarter. He saw it in some guys eyes, they were getting down, including myself.
“I was like, ‘Man, how are you going to pull this off?’”
Mahomes never wavered. Why would he? What hasn’t worked out? From his pro debut, when he started the Week 17 game of his rookie season in 2017 at Denver and led the Chiefs to a last-second-field-goal victory, to his NFL MVP season as a first-year starter and now the Super Bowl MVP. He turned 24 this season and is the youngest quarterback to win the honor.
Even when the Chiefs lost the AFC Championship Game to New England last season, Mahomes never got a chance to apply a final touch. The game ended in overtime and Mahomes never got off the bench in the extra period.
Mahomes hasn’t lost a game by more than one score in his career, and he wasn’t about to let that happen Sunday.
“I never have that mindset,” he said. “My mindset is to play and compete to the very end, the last whistle, until the clock strikes zero. And so I just went out there and kept competing.
I knew we weren’t in an ideal situation.”
Things started to change when the Chiefs took over with 8:53 remaining. They faced a third-and-15 at their 35. Then came a positive moment. Hill made a move, broke free and ran under a 44-yard completion. It was a mood-changing moment.
“We were in a bad situation,” Mahomes said. “The offensive line gave me enough time to throw a really deep route. I just put it out there. Tyreek made a great play, and that just got us going.”
The drive got another big moment when Travis Kelce tangled with the 49ers Tarvarius Moore in the end zone and got the pass interference call, the Chiefs with the ball at the 1. Mahomes and Kelce connected for their first Super Bowl touchdown with 6:17 remaining to slice the deficit to 20-17.
The Chiefs needed a stop and got it. Mahomes went to work once again. The big play was a shot to Sammy Watkins down the right sideline for 38 yards, taking the Chiefs to the 10.
On third and 5, Mahomes lofted a pass to Damien Williams. After reaching up to make the one-handed grab, Williams raced to the corner of the end zone, reached out and got the tip of the ball over the pylon before his foot hit the sideline. A replay upheld the touchdown call that gave the Chiefs a 24-20 lead with 2:50 remaining.
On the go-ahead drive, Mahomes completed all five passes for 60 yards. On the two touchdown possessions, he threw for 114 yards. He had been staring at a 10-point deficit with less than nine minutes remaining in the biggest game of his life — a hole he helped dig — and he came up with a series of terrific plays.
“We kept believing,” Mahomes said. “That’s what we did all postseason. I felt like when we were down by 10 we weren’t playing our best football. The guys stepped up. They believed in me. I was making mistakes out there early, but we found a way to win at the end.”
Those mistakes included the second two-interception game of his career. The first occurred in last season’s wild loss at the Los Angeles Rams, and Mahomes tossed six touchdown passes that day.
When he threw his second pick on Sunday, Mahomes didn’t have a touchdown pass. He finished 26 for 42 for 286 yards. His final incompletion will probably be remembered as the most satisfying of his career. Mahomes needed to burn the final five seconds to run out the clock. He took the snap, took a couple of steps and heaved the ball. When it reached the Hard Rock Stadium turf, the clock read :00 and the celebration had begun.
This story was originally published February 2, 2020 at 11:22 PM.