Patrick Mahomes Praises Defense, Takes Blame In Ugly Win

Despite the lackluster performance from the Kansas City Chiefs offense, the team was still able to beat the visiting Atlanta Falcons 17-14 thanks to tough defense and timely plays.

It's no secret the Kansas City Chiefs did not play their best against the visiting Atlanta Falcons in their 17-14 victory to clinch the No. 1 seed in the AFC.

The Chiefs offense looked out of sync from the beginning as Kansas City put up its lowest scoring total since Week 5 in 2019 and it's the lowest total in a win since Week 14 in 2015 when they beat the then-San Diego Chargers 10-3.

Quarterback Patrick Mahomes admitted in his press conference after the game the offense's miscues fell on him.

"First off, I need to focus on fixing the things I made mistakes on during the game," Mahomes said. "There was a lot of reads, a lot of protection calls, a lot of adjustments at the line of scrimmage that I made wrong or I didn't make the right way that put us in bad positions. I've got to focus on getting myself better to help out the team."

Mahomes finished the game with 24 completions for 278 yards and two touchdowns and one interception. While his stat line didn't look "average" his performance was far off from where it usually was.

The 25-year-old quarterback gave credit to his defense for keeping them in the game while he tried to figure things out on the offensive side of the ball.

"Then again, at the end of the day, the defense plaid their tail off to keep us in the game and give us a chance," Mahomes said. "And the offense found a way to score a touchdown when we needed to so, I mean, that's just that 'championship swagger' as Tyrann [Mathieu] would say of knowing how to win a game even though you aren't playing well."