Patrick Mahomes could not have gotten off to a better start in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game between his Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals. The Chiefs quarterback looked every bit as good as he was a week ago in a dramatic win over the Buffalo Bills, and it looked like he was going to carry his team to a third consecutive Super Bowl appearance.
Then things got bad. Really bad.
Mahomes threw touchdown passes on each of Kansas City’s first three drives. The Chiefs took a 21-3 lead late in the second quarter. At that point in the game, the sharp Mahomes had more TD passes than incompletions.
It was all downhill from there, however, starting with a horrible clock-management situation as time expired in the first half.
The Chiefs had the ball at the Cincinnati 1-yard line leading 21-10 with 9 seconds remaining in the first half. They had no timeouts but plenty of time for two or three throws to the end zone. Their worst-case scenario looked like they would get at least a field goal. But they came away with no points after Mahomes threw a swing pass to Tyreek Hill in the flat (video here). Hill was tackled short of the goal line.
That sequence shifted the momentum in the Bengals’ favor. Kansas City’s first five drives of the second half went as follows: punt, punt, interception, punt, punt. The interception came on an outstanding play by Bengals defensive tackle B.J. Hill. Mahomes threw it straight to him on a screen pass.
All of that eventually allowed Cincinnati to take a 24-21 lead. The Chiefs forced overtime with a field goal as time expired in the fourth quarter, but they should have had more. Mahomes held onto the ball too long on second-and-goal and third-and-goal and took sacks on both plays. He fumbled on the third-down play and was fortunate to have a teammate recover.
When Mahomes has that much time to throw, good things usually happen for the Chiefs. We saw that last week in their overtime win against Buffalo. That was not the case on Sunday, as the Bengals did a great job of covering down the field and keeping Mahomes contained. Their excellent defensive play continued in overtime.
The Chiefs won the coin toss to begin overtime, and many fans thought they would see a repeat of last week’s game. Instead, Mahomes forced a ball into double coverage and the Bengals came away with the interception.
Cincinnati quickly put together a 42-yard drive on the ensuing possession, thanks in large part to some clutch throws from Joe Burrow. Evan McPherson capped off the drive with a 31-yard field goal to send the Bengals to the Super Bowl.
The Bengals deserve all the credit they get. Their defense was outstanding, and Burrow and the offense made big plays when they needed them. But there’s no question Mahomes made mistakes that hurt the Chiefs. People were in awe of his accomplishments in the first half, only to see him fall apart down the stretch.
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