Kansas City Chiefs’ rally over Browns is testimony to hard-wired resolve of Mahomes era
Chiefs coach Andy Reid had been 8-0 against the Cleveland Browns entering their NFL opener on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium; Patrick Mahomes had been 10-0 in September games.
And the last time the Browns won a season opener, in 2004, coach Kevin Stefanski still was a year away from even the heights of what he has called being the “low, low, low man” on the totem pole as a training camp intern for Reid’s Philadelphia Eagles.
Consider, too, that just months before the Chiefs beat the Browns 22-17 in the playoffs … even with Mahomes having been knocked out of the game in the third quarter.
So at a superficial glance, anyway, it might have been easy to assume the Chiefs would start their quest for a third straight Super Bowl berth by stacking more on all those trends.
Trouble is, one thing sports teaches us over and over again is that past performance is no guarantee of future results. An indicator, perhaps, but not a guarantee.
And for much of the game, the Chiefs looked alarmingly vulnerable and were teetering on the verge of a demoralizing 0-1 start that would have made an instant mockery of Mahomes’ stated goal of going 20-0.
If panic-stricken Chiefs Twitter was any indication with the Chiefs lagging 22-10 at halftime, a mutiny on the bandwagon was looming.
For all that, though, by game’s end the 33-29 victory somehow had come to seem inevitable.
As one big play after another cascaded their way and almost tangibly drained the life from the Browns, it all reaffirmed something about the essential makeup of this team in the Mahomes Era:
For one thing, what doesn’t quite kill them often makes them stronger. In this case, a defense being plowed all over the field in the first half was both more motivated and disciplined in the second half — led by Chris Jones being “possessed,” as Reid would put it.
In one swoop, the unit demonstrated that it certainly is better with the absent Tyrann Mathieu, Frank Clark and Willie Gay … but also that it could get better in the course of a day to give up just seven points in the second half.
And, of course, that was relevant because of one of the few things we can now virtually take for granted amid the otherwise constant churn and flux and parity of the NFL.
With Super Bowl LV in Tampa Bay being the unsightly and rare exception, the Chiefs are in any game they’ll ever play because of the dauntless magic of Mahomes and the self-fulfilling faith his mere presence engenders by now.
So the 63-year-old Reid could joke after the game that he’s “getting too old for these” sorts of games.
But the truth is that Mahomes is a living, breathing thundershirt equipped to contend with any storm or fireworks.
Meaning that to Reid, and perhaps most on the team, the Chiefs always feel like they are in position to win and can play accordingly.
(Not that Reid doesn’t endlessly appreciate Mahomes. But maybe one measure of how he can be taken for granted is that on a day when he completed 27 of 36 passes for 337 yards and set NFL records for most passing yards, 14,489, and touchdown passes, 117, in a player’s first 50 career starts, Reid didn’t mention him in his postgame-opening remarks that must have touched on more than a dozen players or coaches.)
So, dire as it might have appeared at halftime, as much uncertainty as an entirely new offensive line might conjure, we can surmise that this formula surges in their marrow by now:
Mahomes and … find a way.
The nucleus highlighted by Mahomes, Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce carries the same energy center and equilibrium of the group that two seasons ago did the unprecedented in winning three straight playoff games after trailing by double digits and then last season grinding out nine wins by six points or fewer (including against the Browns).
“We just have a lot of belief on this team,” Mahomes said. “We’ve been in those situations before, and we think that we can win no matter what the situation is.”
So it was that Mahomes connected with Hill for a 75-yard lightning strike all of 14 seconds after former Chief Kareem Hunt barged in for a 2-yard touchdown to complete the Browns fourth drive of 75-yards-plus and give Cleveland a 29-20 lead in the fourth quarter.
Another team might have been flustered or frustrated or in doubt by then.
But this one creates its own narratives and generates its own momentum when it needs it most.
So on the next play from scrimmage, Jones sacked Baker Mayfield, leading to a three-and-out and Cleveland’s first punt attempt of the game.
Emphasis on attempt, because punter Jamie Gillan lost control of the snap and was swamped at the Cleveland 15-yard-line to set up Mahomes’ go-ahead touchdown pass to Kelce with 7 minutes 4 seconds left.
And that was pretty much that on Sunday, in a game later sealed by Mike Hughes’ interception … and overall by the Chiefs remaining unshakeable even while demonstrating ample room for improvement.
Some might see the narrow and at-times wobbly victory as being susceptible to being beaten, and with the slim margin for error in the NFL there’s something to that. It also bears mention that this game could have turned out differently if any one of a number of plays had unfurled differently.
But the flip side is that the Chiefs beat a team that figures to be among the best in the conference on a day when they unveiled a new offensive line and were without three key players on defense.
Sure, there’s plenty to clean up and tweak.
But each element figures only to get better.
And this day was a building block toward that.
It was a great way to start the season, as Hill put it, “to get our minds right.”
And to remind everyone that past performance may be no guarantee of future success … but it sure can be part of it.
This story was originally published September 12, 2021 at 10:10 PM.