Andy Reid Backs Patrick Mahomes as MVP Following Overtime Win
The Kansas City Chiefs needed overtime to defeat the 1-12-1 Houston Texans on Sunday, and they also needed every last bit of production quarterback Patrick Mahomes could give them.
Mahomes completed 36 of his 41 pass attempts down in Houston, recording a season-high plus-10.3 completion percentage over expectation and also completing a whopping 20 consecutive passes to end the game. Mahomes's 87.8% completion percentage marked his highest in a full game at any point in his career, falling just shy of a 10-for-11 outing back in 2019 that was a partial game. He was precise all afternoon against the Texans' defense, carving them up on a routine basis.
Turnovers by running back Isiah Pacheco and wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster made things more difficult on Mahomes, as did some less-than-stellar offensive line play. Despite all of that, though, the 2018-19 NFL MVP added to his already impressive case for this year's award. Head coach Andy Reid agrees, praising Mahomes for bouncing back from an off game and backing him as this season's most valuable player in the league.
"You saw Pat and what he did — he took care of business today," Reid said. "He went back to work and worked on it. You're talking about a guy that if he's not the MVP of the league, I'm not sure what's wrong with it. He cleaned it up, he comes out and we have almost 500 yards of offense. That's a pretty spectacular day there. That's what he did, a great example of how you go back to the drawing board and make sure that you clean everything up."
Entering Sunday's play, Mahomes led the league in passing yards and touchdowns, as well as QBR. A 336-yard, two-touchdown outing in Houston helps his case for the NFL's most prestigious individual award, as does a critical fourth-quarter touchdown run that gave the team the lead (before it was ultimately squandered). In a year filled with MVP-level moments from Mahomes, his entire game against the Texans was magical.
For the fourth time in five seasons as the Chiefs' starting quarterback, Mahomes has thrown at least 35 touchdown passes. He's just the fifth player in league history to do so, joining the quartet of Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees in some very elite company. Mahomes remains the same player he was years ago at his core, but he's still finding new wrinkles to add to his game. Chiefs Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt spoke about Mahomes after Week 15's win, calling him the best quarterback in football.
"Well, I think you can see that he's maturing as a player," Hunt said. "He came into the league as a remarkably mature young man, and the responsibility that he had coming right out of college was tremendous and he handled it well. His game has evolved as we've moved on in his career. Certainly, there were some question marks about the offense this year given the changes we had at the receiver position. I think he's showed that he is the best quarterback in the National Football League and he's been able to adapt his game to continue to win and put up very impressive numbers on a weekly basis."
The question marks Hunt mentioned have now subsided as the season has progressed, and Kansas City is only getting healthier. Kadarius Toney returned to the lineup on Sunday, and it's likely that Mecole Hardman will follow suit in the near future. With an added dynamic of speed within the Chiefs' offense, it makes sense to expect Mahomes to keep putting up eye-popping stats down the stretch. If that happens, Reid and Hunt's assessments may be true in the eyes of MVP voters.
