Getty Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes II warms up in Week 7.
Patrick Mahomes II addressed the media today and you know what that means — Kansas City Chiefs football is officially back after a long bye week away from the action.
The Chiefs are set to take on the Tennessee Titans under the bright lights in Week 9, in what will be their second appearance of the season on Sunday Night Football. And Mahomes knows all too well that this is a matchup that KC cannot overlook.
Tennessee has won five out of the last six meetings between the two franchises, and three out of four since Mahomes and Titans head coach Mike Vrabel entered the equation. Although Mahomes didn’t play, the respective team leaders had their first head-to-head during the 2017 playoffs (January 2018), a 22-21 comeback victory for Vrabel at Arrowhead. Most recently, Tennessee smacked around the Chiefs last year, 27-3.
The results speak for themselves, Vrabel has Kansas City’s number right now and Mahomes made sure his teammates were aware of that today on November 2.
Patrick Mahomes Warns Chiefs Teammates Before Titans Week
It didn’t take long for a question about the opposition to come up during Mahomes’ press conference, but his answer was surprisingly stern.
“You gotta be ready to play,” he responded in a no-nonsense fashion. “Last year we weren’t ready and they beat our a**. So we gotta make sure that we are ready to go and that it’s going to be a physical matchup.”
“We’re going to have to go out there and play our best football,” Mahomes continued. “This is a team that’s a lot better than what [people say on social media/in the news]. We know that it’s a great football team coming to town and that we have to play our best football.”
Reporters quickly picked up on the strong remark from the Chiefs QB, following with more questions on the Titans’ recent run of success over Kansas City.
“Yeah, I mean they’re talented,” Mahomes told the media when asked why Tennessee has been such a tough competitor, “people don’t talk about their D-line but it’s one of the best D-lines in football. They’re well-coached — Coach Vrabel, I worked with a little bit at the Pro Bowl and I understand the coach that he is — so they’re a well-coached football team and they have a mentality that they’re going to come in and they’re going to win. A lot of times in this league, if you don’t have the confidence going in, that’s where you lose the game.”
“We have to accept that challenge and find a way to win against a really good football team,” Mahomes concluded.
Revenge Game for Chiefs vs Titans
Ironically, the Chiefs’ last Sunday Night Football appearance was a Super Bowl rematch against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In the end, KC came out motivated to get their revenge and they stomped all over the Bucs in their home stadium.
Week 9 provides Mahomes and the Chiefs with a second opportunity to right some wrongs and win another primetime outing versus a team that embarrassed them. And make no mistake, the KC superstar made it known that he was ashamed of the 2021 face-off in Tennessee.
“Anytime you watch that on film and you see how you played, it wasn’t just them beating us but we played bad and they kind of just put it down on us at the end of the day,” Mahomes admitted. “For us, we have to come in with a better mentality because we understand that they’re ready to go and they’re going to have confidence so we have to make sure that we have that confidence to back up our play as well.”
There you have it, the Chiefs superstar has not forgotten what this Titans matchup means to him. The only question is whether or not his teammates will come out with the same ferocity that he did on the Wednesday of game week.