Getty Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes II during Week 4.
After jumping out to an early 17-0 lead, the Kansas City Chiefs entered halftime in a one-possession game.
“It was definitely a fight,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes II admitted after the game. Although the defense allowed an eight-point game-tying drive at the start of the third quarter, Steve Spagnuolo’s unit buckled down from there with a shutout the rest of the way.
The KC offense also put together two of their longest drives to ice the game at the tail-end of the third quarter and throughout quarter four. During the postgame, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid relayed the halftime message from Mahomes to his team after throwing two interceptions in the second.
“He said something during halftime,” Reid noted. “He said: ‘We’ll figure it out here. I’ll get it right.’ And he did.”
Running back Isiah Pacheco also chimed in on Mahomes’ rallying cry during the break, stating that his QB voiced: “Way to play for each other, both sides of the ball. And this half when we go out there, let’s just keep building and play for one another. Make plays, that’s the goal and the mindset we had.”
Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes Shares Mentality After Turning the Ball Over
In the NFL, turnovers and mistakes tend to snowball quickly. It takes a veteran mentality to shake off a critical error and turn things around, and Mahomes has gotten better at that with age.
“I’ve just learned that you can only control the next play,” the reigning NFL MVP told reporters after Week 4. “You can only go out there and do what you need to do for that next play. Nothing in the past matters.”
“I don’t know if [that mentality is] coming from Texas Tech or how I played growing up,” Mahomes went on, “it’s just — you keep throwing. You keep putting it out there and letting your guys have chances. You can’t worry about the interceptions that have happened in the past, you have to keep fighting and that’s something I believe in.”
The Chiefs QB did add that “obviously, I have to be more careful with the football,” but also made it clear that “at the same time, I have to be me.” That means giving his teammates the opportunity to make plays no matter what the stat line looks like for Mahomes.
Chiefs HC Andy Reid’s Halftime Message — Per QB Patrick Mahomes
Being that Reid shared a reiteration of Mahomes’ halftime speech, the media asked the signal-caller what the future Hall of Fame head coach had to say at the break.
“I think it was just kind of — ‘let’s just keep playing together, keep fighting,’” Mahomes replied. “I knew, I mean I took accountability on it. I knew I put us in two bad positions at the end of the half and the early second quarter.”
“No one points fingers in that locker room,” he continued. “We all play together, and we know not everything is going to be pretty, but the guys responded, we came together, and we found a way to get a win.”
Indeed, they did, and in a league and sport as tough as this one, you can never take a victory for granted. The Chiefs are now 3-1 heading into Week 5 after starting the season out with a loss. They play the 1-3 Minnesota Vikings on the road next outing and currently hold the No. 1 seed in the AFC conference via tiebreaker.