Mahomes, Kelce have a feeling Kansas City Chiefs are about to go on a run. Here’s why
The Chiefs won’t say what conversation, if any, sparked their best half of football this season. They insist it wasn’t preceded by some fiery speech or memorable locker-room rant during halftime at FedEx Field last Sunday.
But quarterback Patrick Mahomes has an idea how it all came together. He’s been here long enough, done this long enough, even at just 26 years old. He knows the personalities on this team. Knows what makes them respond.
“I think you felt that in the locker room,” he said, even if “there was nothing really said.”
Felt what exactly?
Before we answer that, let’s put this into his context. Which requires a trip back to 2019. A trip back to where the Chiefs are headed this weekend, ironically enough. A trip to Nashville.
In November 2019, Mahomes returned from a dislocated kneecap injury to face the Titans, and he had one of his best games of the year. The Chiefs led by two possessions in the fourth quarter. Then? Anything that could go wrong did go wrong — a botched snap on one field goal before another was blocked, a squandered chance to seal the game on a fourth-down play-call that coach Andy Reid now regrets, a defensive turnstile in the final half-minute.
All three phases had ownership in a loss that remains among the most frustrating in the Mahomes era.
“That Tennessee game was one back in 2019 that we had a gut-check,” Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce said.
This is where it all feels similar. This is why Mahomes has at least some idea of why one of the Chiefs’ worst halves this season was followed by their best, outscoring the Washington Football Team 21-0 over the second half.
Because of that response in Nashville.
After that Tennessee loss in 2019, a game in which so many could take the blame, the Chiefs didn’t lose again. Almost like a snap of the fingers, everything fell into place. They won the next nine games, turned a 6-4 record into the conference’s No. 1 playoff seed and rolled to their first Super Bowl in 50 years.
Mahomes feels some familiarity now. He’s hoping anyway. But he noticed the familiar mood Sunday, even in that quiet locker room.
“Kind of like this year, we had our backs against the wall,” Mahomes said. “We had to start winning games. At that point, it was a close division race. We wanted to win the AFC West, first off.
“Similar situation now.”
You see, that 2019 team played its best, Mahomes said, with its collective back pushed against the wall. That’s what ignited that late-season run that eventually turned into a parade in downtown Kansas City, he believes. Kelce, too.
A year later, that 2020 team had that same quality. Heck, they had that feeling within a game. A deficit brought out the best in that group.
The 2021 team is still trying to figure it all out. But Mahomes, Kelce and coach Andy Reid all saw a glimpse of it Sunday — a recognition of the dire moment, followed by a leave-no-doubt response.
“If we lost that game,” Mahomes said of the trip to the nation’s capital. “we were going to be in really bad shape.”
In the week of practice leading up to the trip to Washington, Kelce actually recalled that Tennessee collapse. More to the point, he recalled the aftermath of that collapse in Nashville.
The Chiefs had some uncomfortable conversations in the ensuing days. Some finger-pointing, though it felt less like finding someone to blame and more like purposeful critique. Everyone needed to play with more urgency and precision, and preceding that accomplishment was admission of that. Kelce called it a gut-check.
By no coincidence, he used the same language describing the team’s precarious footing after a 2-3 start.
“Going into the Washington game, it was definitely one of those gut-check type mentality weeks,” Kelce said. “I had to make sure everybody knew not to get defensive. There is a lot of corrective criticism that you’re going to get, but at the same time, we need this to get better.
“And sure enough, everybody responded in the right way.”
Reid saw it, too. Again, without mentioning any words that were said, he noticed that veteran leaders had decided “enough’s enough.” In a sport in which each team creates its own identity, that’s one the Chiefs would like to carry over.
That 2019 group wasn’t immune to criticism. At some point, and it fell into place after the trip to Tennessee, they actually embraced the criticism. Saw it as a necessary discomfort.
On Sunday, Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu demonstratively showed his anger along the sideline after a defensive drive gone south. In the ensuing days, teammates would say they needed that. Mathieu thinks they might have enjoyed it.
Even the quarterback took the brunt of some criticism Sunday. After the worst interception of his career because of the worst decision of his career, Mahomes was the subject of it. “We’re going to get it right,” he told his coach.
It’s easy to see the symmetry now.
But only today can the Super Bowl-winning team look back on that Tennessee loss as some sort of positive because of the response it triggered. In the moment, they had no idea how it would play out.
This team has looked good for all of one half — against a Washington team unlikely to play in the postseason, at that. Only the Chiefs know if that’s enough to feel a sense of familiarity. Only they can ensure it lasts.
But in line with the symmetry, what a time to return Sunday to the scene where it started, right?
“You just have to build on it,” Mahomes said. “We’re still nowhere near where we want to be. We still have a long ways to go — cutting turnovers down, executing better as an offense.
“We still have a long ways to go. But it’s definitely a great start to finish a half like that and hopefully carry that momentum into this week.”