Patrick Mahomes won’t be over playoff loss until Chiefs’ next Super Bowl

Patrick Mahomes was having a lot of fun at the 2022 Pro Bowl, but in an interview from the sideline during the National Football League’s all-star festivities, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback also made it clear he was going to nurse the wound of a loss in the AFC Championship game for quite some time.

Just a week ago, the Chiefs were up by 11 at halftime over the Bengals in a game that would have sent them to the Super Bowl—their third consecutive appearance. Instead of putting away the upstart Bengals at home at Arrowhead, the Chiefs suffered a meltdown of epic proportions, the sort of stomach-punch game that will be remembered by Chiefs Kingdom for quite some time.

In the end, the Bengals went ahead with a field goal in overtime and claimed the Super Bowl berth as AFC champions for the 2021 season.

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes says it’s going to take him a long time to get over the team’s meltdown against the Bengals.

Mahomes himself was a central figure in that loss as a quarterback who looked slightly off in every way in the second half of that game. Passes seemed to sail farther or shorter than they should have. Some play calls seemed off, and other decisions made by the quarterback under duress didn’t make sense. He ended up taking four sacks despite a meager pass rush from the Bengals that oftentimes featured only three guys up front.

The loss to the Bengals meant that Mahomes and his teammates were going to be able to make their Pro Bowl appearances after all since they would not be busy in the Super Bowl. From the sideline at the Pro Bowl, Mahomes was asked about how he’s dealing with the loss one week later.

“It still hurts. I mean, you wanna be in that Super Bowl, but you enjoy this. It’s an honor to be in the Pro Bowl,” said Mahomes. “So to be able to be in the Pro Bowl with a lot of my teammates, see their families, it’s a good way to cap off the season for us.

“I’m still not over it. I don’t think I’ll be over it until we’re playing in another Super Bowl. So I’ll have to use that as motivation to go forward.”

When it comes to getting back to it, Mahomes realizes that each new season is a standalone effort and that previous levels of success are no guarantee of future wins.

“We have to go through the process again. You start from scratch every single year in this league. You have to go in with the mindset of, ‘I’m going to get better every single day,’ and hopefully give yourself a chance to be in the Super Bowl.