Patrick Mahomes put on a resilient display in passing for nearly 500 yards against the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night, but turnovers ultimately proved to be his Achilles' heel.
The Rams scored 21 points off his turnovers in their 54-51 victory in an epic duel at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and Mahomes was quick to point the finger at himself for not doing more to help the Chiefs better the Rams' frantic scoring pace.
"The turnovers, they just changed the game," Mahomes said. "I gave them 21 points, pretty much, through turnovers. It was kind of like the New England game. You can't give good teams points turning the ball over and that was the turning point of the game."
For the most part, Mahomes had a performance that would have been an offensive coordinator's dream. The second-year bomb-hurler completed 33 of 46 passes for 478 yards and six touchdowns. After the Rams jumped out to a 13-0 lead to start the game, he rocketed K.C. to a 17-13 edge with three consecutive scoring drives.
Then he started to hit some Aaron Donald-sized speed bumps. The prolific pass rusher's strip sack of Mahomes in the second quarter led to Rams linebacker Samson Ebukam recovering the fumble and scoring on an 11-yard scamper to the end zone.
In the third quarter, Mahomes lost the ball on another strip-sack by Donald that led to a 7-yard touchdown run by Rams quarterback Jared Goff minutes later. Later in the third, Ebukam picked off Mahomes and ran over the QB at the end of a 25-yard romp to the end zone.
Kansas City had two final chances in the closing minutes to try to force overtime or score the go-ahead touchdown, but its drives quickly fizzled after Mahomes was picked off by Marcus Peters and Lamarcus Joyner.
"It sucks right now. Plain and simple," Mahomes said. "You wanted to win that game going into the bye week, [against] a good team like that, a playoff team."
Despite the effort, Mahomes showed throughout the contest why he's one of the game's bright, young stars, connecting on a slew of amazing passes that kept him locked into a gripping, teeter-tottering scoreboard duel with Goff. Tyreek Hill was his co-conspirator in the potent passing game, collecting a career-high 215 yards and two touchdowns on 10 catches.
While coach Andy Reid knows the turnovers hurt the Chiefs' cause, he also knows what he has in Mahomes. The way the young signal-caller bounced back after fumbles and interceptions impressed him.
"He's resilient, man. And he has confidence in himself and his teammates," Reid said. "Thus, he gives it to everybody around him. He makes everybody around him better. Some things are going to happen in a game -- there are going to be highs and lows. The great ones battle through those. You put your head down and learn from the mistakes that take place and you come back firing and try to rip their heart out with the next series. And that's the way he goes about it."
