Here’s Play From Sunday's Win That Kept Mahomes

And while statisticians officially gave Tavius Robinson credit for breaking up the pass, Mahomes blamed himself for his release point – regretting what would’ve been the Chiefs’ first game-opening touchdown drive.

“I think early in the game you saw the one to JuJu that got tipped at the line of scrimmage,” Mahomes said after Sunday’s win.

“It’s just we’ve been working extremely hard and we want to have success. And we’ve just been making little mistakes here and there and that causes frustration, but at the same time, we’ve been learning from them. We’ll learn from this game.”

Amoeba-sized hole

They learned immediately from that play that ended their first drive, forcing the Chiefs to settle for a Harrison Butker field goal. After another field-goal drive, the Chiefs took the lead in the second quarter with another pass to Smith-Schuster, this time a 4-yard laser touchdown through a window the size of an amoeba.

Kansas City never looked back. Chalk it up to Mahomes feeling more comfortable in the pocket.

 “I think the weeks prior," the quarterback said, "have been something that’s been important to me – seeing that I can sit in these pockets and make these throws and get to my third progression, fourth progression and stuff like that.

“Even the play to JuJu that gets tipped, that’s third progression and you see the pocket; it’s clean. Having that and having that confidence in them, it’s pushing me to be better and I thought we did that today, and let’s continue to do it.”

Smith-Schuster has been a key target in the quarterback’s progression during the six-game suspension of Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy’s time lost with a dislocated shoulder.

“There’s stuff that you can learn from every game, win or loss. I’m proud of the guys at how they’ve responded and want to be even better every single week.”

The Chiefs still produced their most points (37) since that 2023 game against the Chargers.