How Mahomes Quietly Made More NFL History Monday

Including postseason, the quarterback reached 40,000 passing yards, and he did it in awkward fashion. Maybe that’s why the accomplishment didn’t make noise, because the route he took to get there perfectly matched the unprecedented weirdness of the first half.

Needing just 34 yards to reach the milestone, and join Peyton Manning (41,082 from 1998-2006) as one of two players ever to get there in nine seasons, Mahomes left the verdict in doubt for an entire quarter.

A circuitous route to say the least

In took Mahomes nine dropbacks. And those nine were straight out of the X Files.

• Sacked by Jacob Martin, who’d snuck around left tackle Jaylon Moore.

• Scrambled for 9 yards.

• Noticed blown coverage, hitting Xavier Worthy for 27 yards (needed only 7 for 40,000).

• Incomplete pass intended for Worthy

• Incomplete pass intended for Kelce (Martin provided another pressure).

• Deep pass intended for Hollywood Brown intercepted on great play by Marshon Lattimore.

• Short pass to Rashee Rice diagnosed by Jeremy Reaves and Jordan Magee, who throw him for 4-yard loss (needed 11 for 40,000).

• Intermediate pass over the middle caught by Rice for 10 yards (needed 1 for 40,000).

• Finally, Mahomes eclipsed 40,000 on the first play of the second quarter, a key 5-yard completion to JuJu Smith-Schuster on the right side to move the chains on third-and-4.

But after another scramble and another negative pass, this time for a loss of 1 to Kelce, Mahomes got picked off again. His pass over the middle to Kelce bounced off the tight end’s hands and into the arms of Bobby Wagner.

It was the first game in the future Hall of Famer’s career in which he threw interceptions on each of his initial two drives.

Right back to Kelce

Mahomes went right back to Kelce, though, something Andy Reid said is rare in those situations. The head coach wasn’t surprised to see Kelce rebound, either.

“Those things happen,” Reid said, “and you know the main thing he didn’t do is hang his head on it. He was mad at himself, but he works through those things. Nothing like getting another catch. So, you get another catch, and you kind of erase that. He had some big ones there. So, a lot of production.

“You have a quarterback that’s willing to go back to the guy, too. A lot of quarterbacks will shy away from that if they’ve had a bad play and he goes right back to him.”

Mahomes came out of the locker room and guided the Chiefs on a touchdown drive. It marked the sixth time this season he’s done that on the initial possession of the second half. And he wasn’t done.

The quarterback engineered two more touchdown drives as the Chiefs put the game away.

“Yeah, man, he was surgical out there,” said linebacker Nick Bolton. “First half, obviously wasn't what he probably expected, but the second half was surgical. The offense kind of got going, crowd got into it.

“We just have to do our job on defense, keep them out of the end zone. But yeah, man, he was super fun to watch. Man, it's been fun to watch him all year, since training camp, locked in.”