Turning the ball over is always painful, but Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes had two especially painful turnovers in the Week 6 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
The first interception came on the team’s opening offensive possession. The Bills gifted Kansas City a turnover on a toss play that was fumbled by the running back. Mahomes and company marched down the field and into the red zone in no time.
After a touchdown pass to WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling was called back on a penalty, Mahomes sought to go back to the receiver and give him a chance to make a play in the red zone. Mahomes thought that he was throwing the ball to a spot where only Valdes-Scantling could get it.
He was wrong.
“I was trying to put it in that one spot that the receiver could get it and no one else could get it – kind of that high point in the back corner of the end zone and we got our hands on it, but they made a great play,” Mahomes said. “Like I said, we can’t make those mistakes because if you look at it, I mean that’s three points and at end of the game we’re going for a field goal instead of a touchdown (to win the game). I always believe in my guys and try to make those throws and give them a chance, but their guy made a play in a big point in the game.”
It’s hard to fault Mahomes for giving his guy a chance and the defender making a great play. However, the last offensive play of the game for Kansas City is a different story.
Mahomes fell for a shell defense where the Bills rushed three and left LB Matt Milano spying the quarterback. When Mahomes escaped the pocket, Milano came after him and forced him to double-clutch the pass. He was late with the ball and it was intercepted as a result.
“Yeah, they were in a shell-type defense,” Mahomes explained. “Obviously, I looked originally to the – we had a corner route and he had dropped back and I think you could see I wanted to reset and throw it to him fast and (Bills LB Matt) Milano was in the way and then by the time I reset and threw it to him again seven (Bills CB Taron Johnson) made a great play and got back in there. So it’s a good defense, it’s a good player, you’re at the end of the game (and) you’re trying to press the issue and get some completions because you’ve got to score a touchdown, but he made a good play when it counted.”
The problem with pressing the issue is that Mahomes had 51 seconds, two timeouts and it was only first down. He would have been better off throwing the ball into the dirt and living to fight another down. After all, the Chiefs have already proven they can go the length of the field and score in no time. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened here and the interception sealed the loss for Kansas City.
All-in-all, this was just Mahomes’ 11th career game with two or more interceptions out of 80 career games (including the playoffs). He remains one of the best in the league when it comes to taking care of the football. He has no choice but to live with and learn from these two errors in Week 6. Hopefully, they’ll allow him to have a cleaner performance when these two teams meet again down the road in the playoffs.
