The Kansas City Chiefs had a very un-Chiefs-like offensive output on Sunday, finishing with just 315 total yards while going 3-for-10 on third down and 2-for-4 in the red zone. Patrick Mahomes went 20-for-35 for 262 yards with one touchdown and just one interception in the loss as the Chiefs quarterback took out his frustration at times throughout the game.
The most notable was with offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, with whom Mahomes has maintained a strong relationship over the years. The Chiefs faced a second-and-20 at their 36-yard line with 20 seconds left in the first half and decided to run the ball and the clock without attempting another play.
Trailing 14-10 at the half, Mahomes wanted a chance for more. He didn’t understand.
“I mean, at the end of the day I wanted to go try to score. I mean, that’s me,” Mahomes said after the game of his exchange with Bieniemy. “We were in a difficult situation. It was probably the smart decision to make – we got the ball in the half and just went to half-time, but I’ll always want to score.
“I pretty much just said, ‘Let me have a chance,’ and then he said, ‘Let’s go back in the locker room and do something for the next half.’ I guess I don’t know if that’s an altercation, but that was the end of conversation.”
Mahomes and Andy Reid quickly cleared the exchange, but it led to a frustrating second half for the Chiefs as they scored just three points and made several mistakes, mostly on special teams. Kansas City had a fumbled punt by Skyy Moore — the Colts scored a touchdown on the next possession — and missed an extra point and a 34-yard field goal, as well as a fake field goal that led to a incomplete pass and a turnover on downs.
Muhammad takes full responsibility for all mistakes. For him, 17 points is unacceptable.
“We all have to gel together. It starts with me,” Mahomes said. “There were certain pitches that I was getting on the hips of a guy’s back instead of in front of them. There were certain situations where we were barely out. If I was a D-lineman who raised my feet and I missed Justin Watson or if it was a throw late in the game where maybe I could have put it in front of JuJu (Smith-Schuster) and he goes up for a pick, it’s little things like that.
“Anytime you play a tough game like this, you have to execute at a higher level, and we’ve got to learn from it. Our schedule doesn’t get any easier. We’ve got a tough game, Sunday Night Football in Tampa, next week against a great defense, we have to improve quickly.
“If we don’t, well, we don’t want those L’s to start piling up. We want to make sure we get back on the winning train.”
