Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill put on a show in the Chiefs win over the Bucs in Week 12.
There are very good reasons why Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill are household names for the Kansas City Chiefs, and they showed off a few more on Sunday afternoon in Tampa Bay in the Chiefs 27-24 win over the Buccaneers.
The story of the game coming in was all about the fourth matchup between Mahomes and future Hall of Famer Tom Brady. Instead, the Chiefs took control of the narrative early with a dominant first quarter that netted over 200 yards receiving for Hill—yes, 200 yards—and two long touchdowns that put the Chiefs up early.
The Chiefs offensive exhibition began on their third drive of the game when Mahomes made quick work of the drive by connecting with Hill on a 75-yard bomb that took a mere 10 seconds off the clock. After a stalled first drive in which the Chiefs settled for a chip shot field goal from Harrison Butker and another short third down failed conversion, it was nice to see Mahomes take matters into his own hands.
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Hill was just getting started from that point forward, however. On the very next drive, the Chiefs drove 90 yards on 7 plays, including half of them on a 44-yard catch from Hill who then took it into the end zone himself for his second score on the day with 90 seconds left in the first quarter.
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After the Chiefs went into halftime with a 20-7 lead, the Mahomes to Hill connection just kept rolling in the second half. The Bucs came out and drove the length of the field only to settle for a field goal shortly after halftime, and the Chiefs came roaring back with multiple catches by Hill, including a 20-yard touchdown catch that was perfectly thrown by Mahomes.
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The Chiefs defense also delivered a very solid afternoon of football after receiving plenty of criticism following the close win over the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 11. Their AFC West rivals put up 71 points over two games this season, and it was clear the defense came in ready to change the narrative against the Bucs. Early blitzes frustrated Tom Brady and the Bucs offense early, and a third-quarter blitz from Tyrann Mathieu helped Bashaud Breeland pick off a deep throw in the third quarter to kill a Bucs drive.
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Despite being down by three possessions going into the fourth quarter, the Bucs refused to back down. On a fourth-and-3 situation with 12:44 to go, Tom Brady threw a nice 31-yard pass to Mike Evans for his second touchdown pass of the day that thinned the margin to 10 points, 27-17. After forcing the Chiefs to punt again (their third stalled drive in a row), the Bucs marched 73 yards on a penalty-filled drive (for the Chiefs) that ended in a 7-yard touchdown pass from Brady to Mike Evans, which cut K.C.’s lead to a mere three points.
Fortunately, Mahomes answered the call on the very next drive with savvy scrambles that moved the chains enough to drain the Bucs timeouts and a key third-down catch by Hill to convert a final first down allowed Mahomes to kneel out the clock and seal the win.
The Chiefs move to 10-1 on the year and now have a four-game lead in the AFC West.