The Kansas City Chiefs offense struggled for much of Monday night's 26-10 win over the New England Patriots at Arrowhead Stadium, and quarterback Patrick Mahomes gave a candid assessment of his performance after the game.
"They have a lot of good veteran players. I think that's the first thing," Mahomes said. "When you have good players and do different schemes and you're able to do that, usually you are a pretty good defense. As for us, especially me, I didn't execute at a high enough level when you're playing against a defense like that if you want to go out there and have success."
The Patriots defense deserves a lot of credit. It held the Chiefs to only 19 offensive points, which is the second-fewest Kansas City has scored since Mahomes became its starting quarterback to begin the 2018 season.
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Bean: Mistake-filled loss to KC anything but a moral victory
New England also held the Chiefs offense without a first half touchdown for just the third time in the Mahomes era. The other two instances also came against the Patriots in the 2018 regular season and 2018 AFC Championship Game.
Mahomes didn't play awful by any means, but it wasn't the sensational performance we're accustomed to seeing from the reigning Super Bowl MVP. He completed 19 of 29 pass attempts for 236 yards with two touchdowns and zero interceptions.
The game being postponed from Sunday to Monday night due to COVID-19 presented challenges for both teams. Mahomes was asked how the schedule changes impacted his preparation.
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“Obviously, I didn’t do enough because we didn’t execute to a high enough level,” Mahomes admitted. “I wasn’t able to find the guys, and I didn’t play very good football. I thought I did whatever I could to try to stay in tune with the game. Hopefully if this presents itself again, which hopefully it doesn’t, I’ll be able to do better.”
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The game would've been a lot closer if the Chiefs defense didn't step up and force four turnovers, including a pick-6 in the fourth quarter by Tyrann Mathieu that sealed Kansas City's victory.
“Our defense stepped up and made a lot of big-time plays,” Mahomes said. “Whenever you’re trying to go throughout a season and win as many football games as possible to set you up for the playoffs, you’re going to have to win games like this.”