The Kansas City Chiefs did it again.
Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs on two field-goal drives in overtime, which were good enough to get to 2-0 with a win over the Indianapolis Colts. It improves the Chiefs’ recent streak of overtime wins.
Here are my takeaways from Sunday night:
1.
It’s hard to find many situational stats where Kansas City doesn’t look good, but they’re a really good team once a game gets to overtime.
When they pulled out an overtime win over the Colts on Sunday night, it was their sixth win in their last six overtime games. Their last overtime loss was to the Bengals in the 2021 AFC Championship Game. Even with that, they’re now 9-1 in overtime games since the start of the 2019 season.
Of course, a big part of that is Mahomes – in overtime entering Sunday’s game, his career overtime numbers were 30-for-41 for 377 yards, completing 73% of his passes for a 109.5 passer rating. He’s actually only thrown one touchdown pass, but he consistently leads his team to victory.
Converting a third-and-12 as he did with a pass to Tyquan Thornton was another case of Mahomes delivering when the Chiefs need him most.
2.
It’s almost like last season, when the Chiefs missed the playoffs and Mahomes looked mortal, was a palate cleanser to allow fans to enjoy the three-time Super Bowl champion being extremely good again.
Patrick Mahomes (right) celebrates a touchdown pass to Xavier Worthy (center). (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Sunday night was Mahomes getting back to his old self – three touchdowns and no interceptions, with one score each to tight end Travis Kelce and wide receivers Xavier Worthy and Jalen Royals. It’s the 30th time in Mahomes’ career he’s had at least three touchdown passes and zero interceptions. He actually had four such games last year, and he registered two-thirds of his touchdown passes for the season in those games.
The dynastic aspect of the Chiefs going to five Super Bowls in seven years and winning three of them put Mahomes at a level of consistently great that has fans almost rooting against him as a default. We might not be able to seriously sell them as underdogs for very long, but it’s reset things enough that fans can enjoy Mahomes in a way they couldn’t for a while.
3.
Wide receiver Alec Pierce was carted off with an ankle injury. The Colts just don’t have the receiver depth to keep up without Pierce, with Josh Downs helping out but little else from the position Sunday night. Keenan Allen had no catches on his first four targets.
Then, both starting corners were sidelined: ex-Chiefs star Mooney Ward and Sauce Gardner. It’s hard to build enough depth to handle multiple injuries at a position like corner in one game.
Give the Colts credit for keeping this game close, though. They kept it close with the Chiefs despite playing cornerback Kapena Gushiken, an undrafted rookie from Ole Miss who the Colts claimed off waivers from the Eagles less than three weeks ago. Having that kind of player ready to play for exactly this kind of scenario.
3 ½. What’s Next?
The real setup in the Chiefs’ upcoming schedule is them facing the Seahawks and Broncos – both of last year’s Super Bowl teams – on the road in back-to-back games in Weeks 6-7.
Before they get there, Kansas City should have three very winnable games – at the Dolphins, at the Raiders and at home against the 0-2 Chargers. Kansas City could have a lot of momentum built up by the time they take on the defending Super Bowl teams two weeks in a row.
The Colts, meanwhile, have a pair of 0-2 teams on deck with a home game against the Texans and a trip to face the Commanders in Week 4, with quarterback Jayden Daniels’ status up in the air after suffering an elbow injury on Sunday.
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