Mahomes on Chiefs’ Mistakes vs. Chargers: ‘Not Going To Win Games With Four Turnovers'
In the Kansas City Chiefs' 30-24 loss at the hands of the Los Angeles Chargers, quarterback Patrick Mahomes had one of the worst games of his career. He was still at least average by many standards, but it wasn't the stellar performance that many have grown to expect from him.
Mahomes completed 27 of his 44 pass attempts for 260 yards and three touchdowns, but he also threw a couple of costly interceptions. His 81.6 passer rating was dragged down by the turnovers and his pocket presence came and went throughout the contest. The Chiefs' 26-year-old field general and his teammates weren't able to complete the team's comeback despite putting up a solid effort. Four turnovers by the offense led to the Chiefs having their work cut out for them against a quality opponent, and Mahomes spoke about that after the game.
"We scored 24 points with four turnovers," Mahomes said. "You're not going to win games with four turnovers in this league. We were moving the ball the way we wanted to and we got ourselves back in the game and gave ourselves a chance in the end, so there's not much concern. It's just about going in and putting in the work every single week."
Of the Chiefs' four turnovers, half of them came from Mahomes. With that said, one was a slightly misplaced ball that wide receiver Marcus Kemp still should have caught and another was a miscommunication between Mahomes and Travis Kelce. That doesn't completely excuse the quarterback, but it does provide some context. Mahomes is aware of the team-wide mistakes, although he isn't too worried about the processes simply due to some poor results.
"The play that I threw to (Marcus) Kemp, just a tad behind him and it got popped into the air and got intercepted," Mahomes said. "Probably he catches it, probably is a touchdown. The run that Clyde (Edwards-Helaire) had, he makes a guy miss, makes a great run, got stunned weird and the ball comes out. I throw the ball to Tyreek (Hill) who never fumbles and he gets the ball perfectly hit at the perfect time to fumble. So it's not like we weren't doing things the right way like we always do, we just didn't execute whenever it came down to it. In this league, when you're playing teams like the Chargers, a good football team... if you don't execute, you don't win football games."
Mahomes is right. Of the Chiefs' first three games this season, all of them came against playoff-caliber opponents. All three were close battles, as well. The team is notorious for playing tightly-contested games over the past year or so, and it came out on the losing end this time. That likely could have been avoided had Mahomes and company not turned the ball over four times but alas, they have some things to clean up before the next time they take the field.
