Patrick Mahomes: ‘I Have to Be Better’ Following Week 17 Win

Despite throwing three touchdowns in a win, Mahomes isn't proud of how he played.

For most quarterbacks, a 328-yard performance accompanied by a trio of touchdown passes is considered an outstanding performance. Even with an interception added into the mix, that's still something to be proud of.

According to Patrick Mahomes on Sunday against the Denver Broncos, it was a game filled with mistakes and habits that he must correct moving forward.

In the first half of Week 17's matchup, Mahomes came up a bit gimpy after attempting a jump pass. He appeared to have a minor knee or leg ailment of some sort, but it didn't cause him to miss any time during the game. Head coach Andy Reid said postgame that he didn't believe the knee affected Mahomes's play, and Mahomes echoed that sentiment despite him missing some routine throws and looking erratic at times in the second half. Mahomes instead took a different approach when explaining his struggles, narrowing the problem down to inconsistent mechanics independent of the knee scare. 

"I don't know if it impacted it at all," Mahomes said. "I lost my mechanics in that second half and I was trying to find a way to get back into them. I think you saw on some of the incompletions, I felt like my feet weren't in the right spot and I was kind of throwing off my back foot. I think whenever I get in that mode is when I can struggle. I have to be better at kind of correcting that stuff in-game."

Poor mechanics have been a sporadic issue throughout Mahomes's career, as he's sometimes struggled with pocket navigation/depth and also making throws off his back foot. Both of those things crept up on Sunday, and it led to the offense stalling out to begin the second half. Earlier in the game, Mahomes had Kansas City driving down the field but threw an interception in the red zone that gave the Broncos some early hope. When asked about the decision, Mahomes took responsibility and, once again, said he needs to be better. 

"It was a bad throw, just in general," Mahomes said. "I left it really far inside, I don't know if (Justin) Watson would've been able to catch it because I left it so far inside. I thought there was a window there but those throws, we talk about, it's like 'him or nobody.' Kind of like the one at the end of the half — you throw it on the sideline and if he can make the catch, he makes the catch and if he doesn't, it's just an incompletion. That was just a bad throw that a good player made a good play on. I just have to be better, especially in the red zone, of not turning the ball over."

Far too often this season, either the Chiefs' defense or special teams (or both) has left the team in a position where Mahomes has to be an MVP-level player in order to get them out of precarious positions. On Sunday, it was the offense sputtering out in the third quarter that required Steve Spagnuolo's defense to help out Reid and Mahomes. In the end, though, a stop by the defense on one end and a Mahomes connection to Travis Kelce on the other end put the game on ice. 

Complementary football has been hard to come by for the Chiefs in 2022-23, leading many to believe that Kansas City can't come up with enough stops or clutch plays to win when it matters. Oddly enough, Mahomes found one major bright spot from his inconsistent outing and it didn't have much to do with him. His teammates helped pick up the slack, and that comes in handy during playoff runs. 

"There's not a lot that's satisfying for me," Mahomes said. "Just the fact that we battled through. The defense played their tail off. We put them in a lot of bad situations but they kept making stops, especially in that second half. I thought the offensive line played well and I thought that the receivers and tight ends played well. I just have to be better at putting the ball on them in good spots. I feel like I didn't play at the top of my game today and I thought that the guys around me stepped up. That's the best thing I took from it — I'm not always going to have my best stuff and when the guys around me step up and we can still win football games, it's a good sign."