On Sunday, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes had only the second three-interception game of his career. Before Sunday, he had two total interceptions for all of 2020.
So what does he do after an interception happens?
“I’ve always been someone if I throw an interception it’s not going to change my mentality,” Mahomes told PFT by phone after his team’s 33-27 win over the Dolphins. “I’m going to continue to fire, I’m going to continue to shoot the ball downfield, let my guys try to make plays. Whenever you start being timid after you throw an interception that’s how you lose games.”
It looked like the Chiefs were on track to lose Sunday’s game, especially after Mahomes tried to run away from pressure and ultimately was tripped up for a 30-yard loss. I told Mahomes it was surprising to see it, because we’ve seen him run away from pressure so often over the last three seasons.
“I knew he was going to go for my legs, I just didn’t somehow get my leg up fast enough,” Mahomes explained. “He was able to catch my leg and trip me up a little bit. Like you said, it’s something that I’ve done a lot. I try to stay away from taking a 30-yard sack. Not only does it make it fourth down but it also hurts us with field position, which it did right there. I kind of flipped the field on myself. But at the same time you’ve got to just know when to take those chances and when not to, and obviously that wasn’t the right time at that point in the game.”
The sack created the short field that led to Miami’s first touchdown of the game. Eventually, the Dolphins built a 10-0 had. What gave the Chiefs a spark?
“I told those guys, ‘I made a couple mistakes, but we were able to move the football so continue to do what we do, continue with the process.’ And that’s what we did. We just continued to do what we were doing. . . . I think the best thing about this team is that no one blames each other. It’s all about going out there finding ways to win. We’re really good about that. We never hang our heads, no matter what the score is.”
The Chiefs have done that so often, it’s now expected — by them, by the opponent, and by anyone paying attention. Who didn’t anticipate that the Chiefs eventually would explode on Sunday? No matter how far they get behind, that’s what they do.
Led by Mahomes, they have the right mentality to keep doing it.