Travis Kelce: Patrick Mahomes Is ‘Houdini of Our Era'
Coming off back-to-back performances in Weeks 2 and 3 that saw Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs' offense look very humanlike, the tides turned in a major way on Sunday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Against the league's top defense, Kansas City scored a staggering 41 points in front of the crowd at Raymond James Stadium and dominated all night long. Whether it was the Chiefs' ability to run the ball at will, the daredevil antics of Mahomes somehow working out or even the 27-year-old superstar simply taking what the defense gave him, impact plays were made in abundance. One of them stuck out, though.
Less than four minutes into the second quarter, Mahomes pulled off one of the best plays of his career. The highlight-reel pass included more than 30 yards of running around behind the line of scrimmage, a spin move and a basketball-like throw to cap it off. Running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire hauled in the most entertaining two-yard touchdown pass you'll ever see and after the game, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid glowed over his quarterback's ability to do what no one else can.
"He's had a lot of phenomenal plays," Reid said. "I always remind the coaches, "Don't take it for granted, man.' I probably say the same thing to our media here — that's special. You enjoy every one of those, man, every one of them. You just don't see that very often."
It's hard to put a finger on where this highlight would rank on Mahomes's career list, but that's more of a testament to his historically good resume thus far than anything else. The veteran has cemented himself as the best quarterback of his generation to this point, and his legend only seems to grow with each passing season. The 2022 campaign hasn't been perfect (and neither was Mahomes on Sunday, to be fair) but outside of one interception thrown on a lazy decision, No. 15 was in elite form against Tampa Bay.
Of Mahomes's 23 completions on the Sunday Night Football stage, nine of them went to tight end Travis Kelce. On the same night that Kelce improved to fifth all-time on the tight end career receiving yards list, Mahomes became the fastest player to reach 20,000 career passing yards. It was a legendary night for two of the best players of the past decade, and Kelce praised Mahomes unlike anyone else — even Reid — could manage to.
"The NFL hasn't seen anything like Pat Mahomes, I promise you that," Kelce said. "And you saw it today, he's the Houdini of our era. The guy just finds ways to make plays throughout the game. Big-time third downs, big-time goal line plays, just willing our team into the end zone and willing our team to win. That's our ultimate leader."
Of course, no postgame media session is complete without comments from the man himself. Fresh off his biggest win of the season to date, Mahomes spent the majority of his time applauding his offensive line, coaching staff, running backs, defense and pass-catchers for the quality work they did against a tough opponent. When asked about his crazy second-quarter play, he connected everything back to something Kansas City will look to do plenty more of moving forward: winning.
"I just try to win, man," Mahomes said. "At the end of the day, that's what I try to do. It's not like I'm planning these things where I'm throwing sidearm or whatever it is — spinning, running around. I always say I'm a competitor, and I'm going to find whatever way I can to make our team have success. Today, it was a spin and a little basketball shot that ended up a touchdown."
