Exhale, Chiefs Kingdom.
Six days after Patrick Mahomes hobbled off the field at Cleveland with a very tender right ankle, the Kansas City Chiefs superstar darted, rolled, scrambled, stopped and started, and of course, threw the football aplenty — pretty much checking all the boxes for what it takes to play his lethal brand of quarterback — to demonstrate that crisis has truly been averted.
Maybe it was the cape that Mahomes (perhaps) wears tucked under his jersey and out of plain sight, supplying some extra juice. Because it sure seems as though there’s some super healing power at work here.
Didn’t Mahomes suffer a high ankle sprain against the Browns?
That’s an injury that often knocks victims out for two or three weeks. Yet there was Mahomes, a full practice participant all week, racing out of the tunnel for pregame introductions on Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium in a full sprint. If that wasn’t enough of a statement, Mahomes showed everybody on the first Chiefs possession. On a third-and-13, he bolted out of the pocket and nearly got the first down. Two plays later, he broke from the pocket again, scrambling up the middle for a 15-yard touchdown scamper.
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It seemed so fitting that Mahomes — who also completed 28 of 41 passes for 260 yards with a touchdown and zero picks — used his legs to produce the first points for a 27-19 victory against the Houston Texans.
“I don’t know if it was setting a tone,” Mahomes said during his postgame news conference. “I knew I could run. It was just the stopping that was going to be hard. Once I got to running, I saw the end zone. I was just trying to get up in the air (near the goal line) and to the end zone. It wasn’t setting a tone. I was just trying to play football out there.’
That’s what superheroes do. They serve up the extraordinary. Ease fears. Make the whole better. Then, dripping in humility, insist that it’s no big deal.
Then again, maybe that’s not at all the deal with Mahomes, even with all of his Super Bowl bling and MVP hardware.
This latest episode may be just the Area 51 evidence needed to prove that the dude is just not of this world. Mahomes may very well be an alien among us.
“He didn’t miss a beat,” said Chiefs coach Andy Reid.
No, Reid, even with all that he has witnessed over the years from Mahomes, wasn’t expecting his quarterback to go “Crazylegs” with his running on Saturday. A clue came during the week, when Mahomes didn’t miss a single practice rep. But still.
“He spoils the dog out of us,” Reid said. “He’s so tough. Mentally. And physically. You just get used to it. Most guys don’t come back from that like he did. But he set his mind to it. Then he jumped in that training room and stayed in there. And they did a great job on him, our trainers. Most guys don’t do that.”
And none of these guys, Reid could have added, are Mahomes, who sends quite the message to his team about leadership.
“I ask a lot of the guys around me,” Mahomes said. “If I’m going to ask them to play through pain, play through nicks and bruises, I’ve got to do it as well.”
So there. In any event, with Mahomes leading the way, the Chiefs are 14-1, still on track to claim the No. 1 seed for the AFC playoffs and still showing signs that their mission to become the first three-peat Super Bowl champion is getting stronger by the hour. They won another one-possession game (their 16th in a row in that fashion, including 11 such victories this season), which is undoubtedly a good trait to carry into the postseason. And they brought back another weapon, too, with the regular-season debut of new receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, back from a shoulder injury three weeks after electric running back Isiah Pacheco made his return from a broken fibula.
So, despite the grind that includes three games over 11 days, all systems are go. Especially with Mahomes showing virtually no limitations from the ankle injury.
For a team that has adapted all season to one injury after another, the resilience that Mahomes has demonstrated in recent days is perfectly reflective of the larger picture with the Chiefs. Nobody expected that chasing a three-peat would be easy. Yet the grit the Chiefs have demonstrated to possibly position themselves as the top seed — and it would be a well-earned bye week off — has amplified a dimension that can be overlooked.
The same can be said of the ringleader, too, even if in previous seasons we’ve seen him shake off injuries while chasing Super Bowl glory.
A few days ago, Reid contemplated the possibility of starting backup quarterback Carson Wentz, as any responsible adult would do given Mahomes’ status coming out of the Cleveland game.
“I wasn’t sure,” Reid told reporters on Thursday. By then, he was relieved by the movement he saw from No. 15 on the practice field. “I’ve been through it with him before. He amazes me every time he does it. He’s so mentally tough and just puts…it’s a mindset that he has going into it. So, where he was a few days ago, I probably would have said it was a long shot.”
With Mahomes, the odds somehow keep working in the favor of greatness. Stay tuned.
The Texans came after Mahomes as you’d expect, but the unsung hero came in the form of the Chiefs’ offensive line. Mahomes was sacked once and hit just four times (contrasting the 11 times that Kansas City’s defense laid hits on Houston’s C.J. Stroud, who was sacked twice). The Chiefs got a huge game from Joe Thuney, the All-Pro left guard who made the emergency start at the left tackle post that has been such an issue this season, with Reid rotating several bodies at the post during practices last week in devising his plan.
As good as the protection was throughout the game and as shaky as it has been throughout the season, the biggest hold-your-breath moment on Saturday (after that first touchdown tumble, of course) came in the fourth quarter, when Mahomes was hit (legally) by Danielle Hunter as he released a pass. Mahomes limped after getting up from the turf. As he continued, there was probably a collective sigh of relief.
The ankle will still be monitored closely as the rehab continues. With the next outing on Christmas at Pittsburgh, it figures that Mahomes will stay off his feet as much as possible.
And then he’ll be sure to make sure the cape is pressed and ready to pack for the upcoming road trip.
