How in the what!?!?!? First fumble Patrick Mahomes has ever lost in a playoff game is thispic.twitter.com/MO8EB4acuW
Buy Chiefs Tickets— John Breech (@johnbreech) January 30, 2023
Patrick Mahomes put up a remarkable showing against the Cincinnati Bengals to send the Kansas City Chiefs to the Super Bowl on Sunday and has drawn a high degree of adulation for his efforts. However, the lone stain on his nearly-perfect AFC Championship Game performance was his unforced fumble on a failed pass in the third quarter that gave the Bengals their best chance to make a comeback.
Though the error didn’t become a factor in the final outcome of the game, Chiefs fans held their collective breaths when the play happened in real time, thinking that it might have given Cincinnati an advantage. It was Mahomes’ first fumble in postseason play during his career.
Mahomes addressed the unforced error in comments to the media after the Chiefs’ victory and made it clear that the accidental misstep was salvaged by Kansas City’s strong defensive play.
“It was wide open (and) I was going to throw it to Marquez (Valdes- Scantling),” Mahomes explained. “They blitzed and so he was going to be wide open and (the ball) just slipped right out of my hand and obviously I tried to pick it up and I wasn’t able to do that. Luckily it didn’t cost us the game because it was a big moment in the game, our defense stepped up and got some stops for us there at the end.”
While Mahomes will certainly get the benefit of the doubt from Chiefs fans on just about any mistake he makes, small errors like the one that happened on Sunday could tank Kansas City’s chances of winning another Lombardi Trophy against the Philadelphia Eagles in February. Watch for Mahomes to clean up every aspect of his game to ensure that incidents like this don’t happen when the Chiefs travel to Glendale.
