Mahomes Shares Message to Chiefs After Loss to Bills

On the Bills’ pass rush:

“They had a really good plan, man. They have good pass rushers, made a good plan of doing some games and stuff up front and pushing the pocket, so credit to them. They had a great plan, and they have great players, and they made a lot of plays today.”

On what made the pass rushers so effective:

“Yeah, I mean, just when they're playing the man-type coverages, trying to get some guys open down the field, and they did a good job of pushing the pocket. So, I got to be better working the pocket, find different lanes to step up through. But when I was able to, we were able to hit some shots down the field, but I’ve just got to be more consistent with that.”

On the fourth-and-17 completion to Rashee Rice:

“Yeah, I mean big play, obviously, getting that, getting into the end zone on that drive. And the fourth-and-1, as well. So, Coach just trusted us, and we were kind of in that range where. Was too long of a field goal, but there was no reason to really punt. So, I mean, Coach gave us a chance and we’ve got guys. Rashee did a great job getting open in like the last window, so big play. But obviously we didn't capitalize on the momentum of that play.”

On his overriding takeaway from this game as he heads into the bye:

“Yeah, I think, I mean, we've had great moments, we've had bad moments. We got to be more consistent as a team. I got to be more consistent as a quarterback, and we got to be able to battle. I mean, we've kind of been in a lot of these tight, close games in our history, but they're not going our way now. So how can we deal with that adversity? How can we be better and learn from it? I mean, you only learn from so many losses. I mean, you got to kind of learn from it fast, and it’s gonna be an uphill battle when we get back, but I think our guys are up to it.”

On third-down struggles:

“Yeah, they did a great job. They did a great job rushing the passer. I missed some guys open on certain plays, and they did a good job of being in the zones that we wanted to throw it in. That's a good football team. I know they had some guys down, but they're coached very well. They play extremely hard, and they did a great job today.”

On his message to the team headed into the bye:

“Yeah, I mean, I think it's just like I said, we got to learn from it. It's kind of like, we got to do it now. Like, there's no easy game coming up, and there's no more chances that we can really take losses. So, I mean, you got to learn from it fast, and we got to be better as a team offensively. We got to be better, especially some of those big drives we had in the second half. And I think we'll just continue to push away and learn on this bye week and then come back and be ready to play our best football coming off of it.”

On the sequence at the 1-yard line late in the first half:

“Yeah, we got to find a way to get in the end zone. Just after the big play, and getting down at the half-yard line. Kind of the run play where we weren't able to get in, and two chances, two chances for me, and I tried to get the ball to Trav (Kelce), and obviously took the big hit. But we got to find a way to get in the end zone. So, I got to be better there. And situationally, we got to be better. I thought we made a couple of those where we didn't really execute at a high enough level, and that's why we got the loss.”

On whether he threw the interception to avoid taking the sack:

“Yeah, 100 percent. I mean, you don’t want to throw interceptions, don't get me wrong. But if you're gonna throw it, make it down the field and give the guy a chance in that situation. And it almost worked out for us, because we able to get the stop and have a chance at the Hail Mary a couple times. But yeah, I mean, there's no reason to take the sack there. Throw it up there, maybe get it and make a big-time play or something like that. But they made a play, and were in the right coverage.”

On whether he envisions meeting the Bills again in the playoffs:

“I mean, we got to get there first. We got a lot of good teams in our division, and they're playing really good football, and we're down there at third place right now. And so, we got to get back and get ourselves right. You know, we got to play better football. And right off the bye, we’re playing Denver. And so that'll be a huge game for us. And so, how can we respond with this bye week, getting ourselves better and self-scouting ourselves so that we can be better and go up against a tough division opponent?”

On what happened on the controversial intentional-grounding penalty:

“Well, I was just trying to say that it got my arm, the ball kind of got hit. I was trying to throw it closer to the guy down the field, but it's judgment call, and it's not reviewable. There's nothing you can really do about it. But I was just trying to explain, I was just trying to explain, myself, that I was trying to throw it closer to the guy down the field. I wasn’t going to throw it to him. I was gonna burn it. But obviously they didn't see the ball get tipped. But that's part of the game, you know. You gotta move on from it.”

On head-to-head matchups with Josh Allen:

“Yeah, you know it's gonna come down to a couple plays, you know? And they made those plays today. Josh played amazing. They ran the ball well, and their defense had a good gameplan. And so, it always comes down to these certain plays in games where you gotta go out there and make the play happen and we weren’t able to do that today.”