Beating Brady, Mahomes continues making case as budding best player in NFL history
In their riveting, dizzying 27-24 victory on Sunday at Tampa Bay, no performance was more spellbinding for the Chiefs than that of Tyreek Hill — who had 203 receiving yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter and finished with 269 yards on 13 receptions.
Hill was so mesmerizing it was almost easy to overlook the other end of the battery.
But only almost. And only because by now it might be tempting to take the transcendent Patrick Mahomes for granted.
Don’t make that mistake. Not because you can’t count on it, of course. Because every single chapter, every brush stroke made and chord played by this 25-year-old creative genius further animated by ever-innovative coach Andy Reid, needs to be savored and appreciated. Including this one both in itself and in its context framed against Tampa Bay counterpart Tom Brady.
Every week it’s something new and more amazing yet and testimony to why the Chiefs should be favored to come back to Tampa for a Super Bowl repeat and contend for years to come.
There was no formal passing of the torch ceremony after a game in which the Chiefs defense contained Brady most of the way before letting the Bucs back in with a variety of gaffes and penalties.
But what we witnessed on Sunday was Mahomes standing triumphant for the second time in four meetings with Brady, the most decorated quarterback in NFL history with six Super Bowl wins on his resume. And with that came at least some further symbolic transference: In what may well be the last meeting between the two, Mahomes led the Chiefs to their 19th win in their last 20 games by playing with such brilliance as to provide the latest evidence of a case in the making.
Every week now, you are watching the budding best player in NFL history, who on Sunday completed 37 of 49 passes for 462 yards.
His breathtaking array shone throughout the game, of course, with the more nuanced breadth and depth of it on full display on the final drive:
The Chiefs staved off a would-be Bucs’ rally with Mahomes furnishing three first downs in the final minutes, including two with scrambles and a third on an 8-yard pass to Hill on third and 7 when Mahomes initially appeared ready to go down.
In the process, he demonstrated a dimension beyond the 43-year-old Brady, a modern marvel who threw for 345 yards and whose remarkable standard will, of course, take Mahomes years to match or eclipse.
But the greatest player I’ve ever seen is on a certain trajectory, on Sunday becoming No. 1 in NFL history in passing yards a game (303.6-plus) among players with 1,500 or more attempts among other ways he’s doing unprecedented things in a season further marked by his 30-2 touchdown to interception ratio (and 106-20 in his career).
You could have a panel discussion on the criteria for judging such things as “the greatest,” and winning Super Bowls will be part of the formula as the entire case is made years from now.
And that will depend on a lot more than just Mahomes, including a defense that is hard to interpret right now.
Still, yet again, the package was good enough to win on Sunday. And at least the defense limited the Bucs to 24 points after surrendering 31 in each of the previous two games.
The tone was set with Mahomes on all cylinders from the start. A week after their longest play was his 22-yard game-winning touchdown pass to Kelce, the Chiefs opened the game with Mahomes hitting a wheeling Hill for 34 yards and finding him again for 23 to set up first and goal at the 7.
But the drive fizzled after some hocus-pocus gone awry when Travis Kelce’s double-reverse pass for Mahomes was batted down. And when the Chiefs curiously reversed that sort of aggression by opting for a field goal instead of going for it on fourth and 1, you weren’t alone if you wondered if that might matter later.
Meanwhile, after being sliced and diced by the immaculately protected Derek Carr again last week, the Chiefs generated more pressure against Brady on the first drive than they did all game in the narrow 35-31 victory over the Raiders.
A few moments later, Mahomes unleashed a 75-yard TD pass to Hill, eclipsing the longest play of the season (54 yards) for the Chiefs to make it 10-0.
Through three drives apiece, Mahomes completed six of eight passes for 142 yards as Brady managed just three of seven for 24 yards. Before the end of the quarter, Mahomes and Hill connected again for a 44-yard TD ... with enough anti-social distancing at the end to be punctuated by Hill’s backflip into the end zone.
With Mahomes going over 300 yards early in the second quarter and the Chiefs into the red zone, it started looking like an impending landslide. But with the Bucs generating more pressure, Mahomes was strip-sacked for his first lost fumble of the season and marking the first time in 17 games the Chiefs turned the ball over inside the 20.
With that, Brady found some equilibrium and hit Rob Gronkowski and Ron Jones for back-to-back passes of 29 and 37 yards to whittle the lead down to 17-7.
So when the Chiefs stalled in the red zone again at the end of the half, they had only a 20-7 lead.
But the defense bristled for what amounted to a net-win on the first drive of the second half, limiting the Bucs to a field goal after Brady and Gronkowski connected for 48 yards. Then Mahomes and Hill connected again to make it 27-10.
Brady being Brady, he brought back the Bucs despite throwing two interceptions …
Only for Mahomes to keep being Mahomes and put it away on the last drive — and make another profound statement about where this career is heading.
This story was originally published November 29, 2020 at 7:18 PM.