Patrick Mahomes continued his domination of the NFL when he beat the Denver Broncos for the third time in the first nine games of his career.
In a weird quirk of the schedule, Patrick Mahomes has played the Denver Broncos in three of the first nine games of his career. Proving that he is a true hero of Kansas City, Mahomes has beaten the rival Broncos in each of those three matchups. It’s so odd that rather than track Mahomes for the season as I’ve been doing, let’s instead review his early career against the rival Broncos.
Against the Broncos, Mahomes is averaging 297 yards passing per game with a 65 percent completion rate. He’s averaging just under 2 touchdowns and one interception per game during those three games. His total passing stats give him an average passer rating against the Broncos of 96.9.
The Broncos have given him the most trouble as he had two of his worst starts against them stat wise. The final game of last season he threw for only 284 yards—yes it’s fun to say “only” when referring to a sub-300 total for Mahomes—and zero touchdowns with one interception in Denver. In that game, he looked like a rookie making his first start throwing passes over guys heads and trying to win the game with each pass. It also didn’t help his three top weapons were Albert Wilson, Demetrius Harris, and Anthony Sherman.
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Despite the poor statistics and his lack of weapons, he still won the game. In fact, he had to come off the bench after he’d been pulled to get Tyler Bray some snaps and he fumbled away the lead. Mahomes came back into the game with just over two minutes remaining and led the Chiefs on a game-winning field goal drive. He John Elway-ed the Broncos and it felt very good!
His second attempt against the Broncos came this season on Monday Night Football, again in Denver. Mahomes again struggled in the stat line throwing for just one touchdown, but he had zero turnovers and did throw for 304 yards. He had a rough first half, but he more than made up for it in the second half.
He led the Chiefs back from a 10 point fourth quarter deficit leading a game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter. You may recall that final drive was where he completed a left-handed pass for a first down and needed just two plays to convert a 2nd and 30 into a first down. For the second time in two career starts against the Broncos, he beat them with a late fourth-quarter game-winning drive.
He played the Broncos for his third time in just nine games on Sunday, the first time in Arrowhead, and now late-game heroics were needed. This game, his stats were amazing as he threw for 303 yards, four touchdowns, and only one interception. He had a quarterback rating of 125.0 and built the Chiefs a 16-point lead going into the fourth quarter.
Mahomes did have a rough fourth quarter. He threw an interception and had three straight three and out drives to end the game. His interception was a forced throw into coverage that Chiefs fans have been made to believe is horrible. Yes, the throw was a forced throw, but it is a throw you are fine with a quarterback like him making once or twice a game. He is a quarterback who has the vision, arm strength, accuracy, and guts to complete that throw.
It’s the same reason that people think he made a bad throw to Kareem Hunt when he hit him late in the red zone. The announcer said he missed the play but that wasn’t the case. Unlike Alex Smith, Mahomes first read isn’t the check down. He was looking into the end zone for Sammy Watkins first, then down to the next level and Travis Kelce and then his last resort was Hunt in the flat. Yes, he was wide open from start and had he hit him from the snap, it would have been a touchdown. But I don’t want a quarterback whose progression is short to deep, I want one that moves from deep to short.
So was he perfect on Sunday, no he wasn’t. He still had a great game overall and beat the Broncos for the third time. Many people are worried about the Chiefs going into the playoffs and facing a team like the Pittsburgh Steelers or New England Patriots for the second time. They assume those teams will learn and be able to shut down Mahomes in the playoffs. These three games versus the Broncos prove that even on the third time seeing Mahomes they still can barely slow him down.
Mahomes is on pace to throw for 5,052 yards, 52 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. If playing a team the third time doesn’t slow Mahomes down, I don’t see anyone in the league playing him for the first or second time slowing him down.