Patrick Mahomes credited Eric Bieniemy for Chiefs’ game-winning TD against Raiders
Teamwork makes the dream work. That’s certainly the case with the Chiefs.
In Sunday’s 35-31 win over the Raiders, quarterback Patrick Mahomes went to the sideline and made a case for running a particular play. Thing is, as he told NBC Sports’ Peter King, Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy went with a different play call.
The Chiefs had called a timeout following Mahomes’ 3-yard pass to running back Darrell Williams. Thirty-four seconds remained when Mahomes trotted to the sideline and shared his idea with Bieniemy.
“And coach Bieniemy said to me, ‘Well, I like that play, but I really like this other one better.’ He tells me the play, and I think about it for a second. I said, ‘Hey, I like that play a lot.’ That’s what I love about our offense. We communicate. We’re a good team,” Mahomes told King.
Bieniemy’s play call was perfect. Tight end Travis Kelce was all alone in the end zone for a 22-yard touchdown that gave the Chiefs the lead for good.
The final drive and winning touchdown drew a lot of attention from national NFL media members.
Brian Baldinger, an NFL Network analyst, broke down how the play developed and gave special attention to the Chiefs offensive line.
Ben Shpigel of the New York Times wrote a story about the winning drive with the headline, “103 seconds to go. Is Patrick Mahomes the quarterback? No problem.”
This is an excerpt of what Shpigel wrote: “In the 75 seconds it took for Kansas City to go 75 yards, so much could have gone wrong. Nothing consequential did. The most expected outcome prevailed. Give Patrick Mahomes a minute and a half, and the Chiefs will roll.”
At NFL.com, Adam Schein wrote about the good, bad and ugly from Sunday’s games.
This is part of what he wrote: “Mahomes, who completed 34 of his 45 passes on the night for 348 yards and two touchdowns (against one interception), makes it look so damn easy. But we can never take this for granted, never let it feel ordinary. Mahomes is a gem like no other.”
Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer wrote about the Week 11 games as well.
Here is a snippet from the column: “Part of my process on Mondays is to go around and ask people for details or interesting quirks on signature performances on Sunday. ... And one question I asked about (Mahomes’) comeback win over the Raiders on Sunday night was this: Was there any more to it than Mahomes just being an alien in general? ‘That’s basically it,’ went one response I got. ‘He’s just better than everyone else.’ That pretty much sums it up.
We’ll circle back to Baldinger, who had this breakdown of the entire game-winning drive for the Chiefs:
