Patrick Mahomes said he saw a way for the Kansas City Chiefs to reach the heights they’ve been able to in prior seasons, even after one of their worst games of the year.
Mahomes said, “I still believe that we can go do what we want to do,” after the Chiefs’ 20-14 defeat to the Las Vegas Raiders, which prevented them from winning the AFC West for a record eighteen games.
“It’s just how can we correct it as quickly as possible,” he said. “We’re two games left that are guaranteed and then you talk about the playoffs and so all you can do is move on to that next day, get better then and try to be better the next time we step on the field.”
It won’t take much for the Chiefs to become better in their game against the Cincinnati Bengals the following week. They had the lowest total of any NFL club since 2011 at minus-18 yards at the end of the first quarter against the Raiders.
The Raiders’ two touchdowns came on interceptions by quarterback Patrick Mahomes, one on a fumble after a poor handoff between Mahomes and Isiah Pacheco, and the other on defense.
Mahomes said, “You see glimpses of it,” when asked what gave him hope that the Chiefs might overcome the offensive issues that have dogged them for the most of the season. We’ve shown glimmers of ourselves moving the ball and scoring in the red zone. At this point in the season, we haven’t done it consistently enough, game in and game out. We kind of had one great game, one awful game, one excellent game, and one bad game, but we need to be more consistent because you have to string them together when you go to the playoffs.”
As of Week 16, the Chiefs were among the league leaders in turnovers and led the NFL in offensive penalties and dropped passes.
“If we clean it up, we’ll be able to score points,” he said. Simply said, we need to tidy things up. Two games remain. You must do it; else, we will return home.We can defeat anybody if we tidy it up. That is my sincere belief, but we need to demonstrate our ability first.”
After suffering a concussion in the second half of Monday’s game, Pacheco did not come back.
Pacheco, who missed the previous two games due to a shoulder injury, made his game debut against the Raiders. He returned for a touchdown on a 12-yard run, but other than that, he didn’t accomplish much—he ran 11 times for 26 yards and caught 4 passes for no gain.
Prior to the game, Jerick McKinnon, one of the Chiefs’ best running backs, had a groin injury and was put on the injured reserve list. With Clyde Edwards-Helaire and La’Mikal Perine as running back, they ended the Raiders game. Before the Raiders game, Perine signed off the practice squad to replace McKinnon on the roster.
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