PHOENIX (News4usonline) – Patrick Mahomes is the best player in football. He’s proved it all season. If you want to go by the numbers, Mahomes dominated the NFL as he led the Kansas City Chiefs to the Super Bowl for the third time in his six seasons in the league. That in itself is crazy if you think about it.
For the season, Mahomes threw for 5,250 yards and 41 touchdowns. Compared to the 12 interceptions he threw, Mahomes had a stupendous season. Adding to those totals is the fact that Mahomes lost his so-called security blanket in rocket wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who left the team via trade for greener monetary pastures with the Miami Dolphins.
Without Hill, who often jet by defenders, Mahomes was expected to struggle. Instead, Mahomes thrived and got better as a passer. His completion percentage was the highest it’s ever been in his career (67.1 percent) and he broke his own career passing mark for a season.
Oh yeah, the fact that he has led the Chiefs to play the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII has been no small feat. Just to get to this point, Mahomes and the Chiefs had to work their magic. For the fifth time in his short but legendary career, Mahomes has carried the Chiefs to the AFC Championship five times. This is nothing to sneeze at.
Mahomes does things on the football field that isn’t fair sometimes. My mistake. That would be a lot of times. He throws. He runs. He runs. He throws. It doesn’t matter. Mahomes will get you at one point or another.
The Cincinnati Bengals learned that lesson during the AFC title game. The week before, the Jacksonville Jaguars got a taste of Mahomes and a dazzling array of his passes and scrambling ability.
All that did was add up to two Kansas City wins in the postseason, and now they’re back in the saddle again representing the AFC in the Super Bowl, a stark difference from a year ago. After another great year last season, Mahomes and the Chiefs fell short of their ultimate goals when they blew a double-digit lead to the Bengals and lost in the AFC title game.
The Bengals lost to the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI. Mahomes and the Chiefs got some revenge from their AFC rivals when they stormed back from a deficit to beat the Bengals on a field goal with seconds left in the game.
Mahomes, who passed for 326 yards and two touchdowns, gave Kansas City the lift it needed when he scrambled, high ankle sprain and all, to get the Chiefs in position to win the game. Take that Joe Burrow.
The play that put the Chiefs to win advance to Super Bowl LVII was simply a reflection of what Mahomes has meant to his ballclub this season. It also served as a reminder of the hunger to win that Mahomes has.
The defeat last year to Cincinnati was a lesson that motivated the team, Mahomes said during Super Bowl LVII’s media day.
“The loss, you learn that you can’t take things for granted,” Mahomes said. “You can’t come to a game and not have every box checked. I thought we did, but obviously, we didn’t and we ended up losing that game and [it] served as motivation to get back to here.”
The last time Mahomes and the Chiefs were in the Super Bowl, which wasn’t too long ago, they were smacked around by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ defense in an embarrassing 31-9 defeat in Super Bowl LV. After appearing in back-to-back Super Bowl games following the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the Chiefs saw their streak of playing in the big game end with a thud against Cincinnati.
That makes it all more special to be back again, Mahomes said.
“I think that it feels more special the older you get ‘cause you have the failure,” Mahomes said during a team press conference during Super Bowl week. “You have the failure of not getting to this game, and whenever you’re not here and then you get to be back on this stage again I think it gets more special because you never know how many times you’re going to get.”
The Chiefs had the No. 1 offense during the regular season. Mahomes played a large part in that equation with his stellar play. He got rewarded for it, too. Mahomes was voted as the AP Most Valuable Player, the second such honor to come his way in the six years that he has been in the league The prize he really wants, though, is claiming his second Super Bowl win.
“I know what it feels like to win the Super Bowl now and to lose a Super Bowl,” said Mahomes. Winning it, even though I didn’t play my best game, I came through when it counted and was able to win it. And then in the loss, obviously, I left everything out there, but you lose [and] that feeling you have in the locker room after is a terrible feeling because you’re so close to your ultimate prize. And so, you take motivation from that and try to do whatever you can to make sure you have that winning feeling because that’s one you can have forever as well.”
Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, social justice, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University.