Patrick Mahomes said the Kansas City Chiefs “just made too many mistakes” in their 28-24 loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday at Empower Field at Mile High. Mahomes was 30 of 41 for 321 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, but Kansas City led 24-13 before Denver came back, and Malcolm Roach sacked him on the final snap. “When you make mistakes, you’re going to lose when you play good football teams,” Mahomes said.
Mahomes spoke after coach Andy Reid in the postgame news conference, starting at about the 5:35 mark of the video. Reid said earlier in the session that Kansas City had more than 100 yards of penalties, and the final box score shows 11 for 105. Reid also said that, with the exception of rookie defensive tackle Peter Woods, who had a stinger, there were no other injuries to mention, and that “we’ll be ready to go” for the Jets.
“Penalties, some miscommunications”
Asked what went wrong, Mahomes pointed to penalties and communication. “Obviously penalties, some miscommunications between me and the receivers and running backs,” he said. He also said the result mattered in the division. “You want to get the win in division,” he said, but the Chiefs “made too many mistakes” to do it against a quality team.
Fourth-and-inches, with the lead
Kansas City punted on fourth-and-1 from its own 41 with 13:21 left in the fourth quarter, leading 24-13. Explaining a fourth-down decision with the lead, Mahomes said the offense sent the punt team out and was trying to decide whether to go for it. He said the line to gain was relayed as fourth-and-2, and by the time the offense lined up, the ball was spotted at fourth-and-inches. “Fourth and inches is a lot different,” he said, and “we had the lead in that spot,” so “kind of just have to play with it.”
He did not make it the reason for the loss. “We had other opportunities to win the game, and we weren’t able to capitalize there,” Mahomes said.
The sack before the missed field goal
With Kansas City leading 24-21 and 2:44 left, Mahomes was sacked on third-and-2 at the Denver 30 and lost 6 yards. Harrison Butker then missed a 54-yard field goal wide right, and Denver took over. Mahomes blamed himself for the sack. “They played well, they passed off coverage really well,” he said, “and I got to throw the ball away or get vertical.” He said Kansas City was on the edge of field-goal range and that moving backward there leaves the kicker in a tough spot. “I can’t put him in that position,” Mahomes said.
Emmett Johnson’s big day
Rookie running back Emmett Johnson caught five passes for 128 yards and a 73-yard touchdown, a play that came on third-and-10 from the Kansas City 27 and gave the Chiefs a 14-6 lead. Mahomes said Denver “blitzed into where I was coming from,” so he bought time, Johnson slipped through, and he “just gave him a chance.”
Mahomes was asked about Johnson’s role going forward. “Kenneth is the guy,” he said of starter Kenneth Walker III, who ran 21 times for 69 yards, but Johnson “can come and be a change of pace and break tackles and make plays, catch the ball.” He said that makes the offense harder to defend. “Defenses can’t relax, and so I thought he did a great job today,” Mahomes said. “As the season goes on, we’ll continue to utilize him more and more.”
Mile High, again
Mahomes said the crowd was what he expected. “Every time you play in the stadium, it’s loud, it’s rocking, and they’re emotional and they love it. They’re passionate,” he said. “It kind of took me back to that Monday night game I played in the first time ever starting here.” He added that “it’s a good football team, great crowd. They know what football is all about.”
“I wish I had done a better job of getting the ball out”
Kansas City got first-and-goal at the Denver 4 with 35 seconds left, and Walker ran to the 1. After a timeout, a pass fell incomplete and Walker was stopped for no gain. On fourth-and-goal, Jaylon Moore was flagged for a false start, and the next snap, from the Denver 6, ended with Roach’s sack for a 6-yard loss.
“You want to score. You’re on the one-yard line. You’re in the red zone,” Mahomes said. “It’s a really good defense. They’re hard to score on in the red zone.” He said the Chiefs liked the play that the false start was called on, a call they had talked about the night before. “We had to go to a different play on that last one, and they covered it well,” he said.
Then he turned to his own part. “I wish I had done a better job of getting the ball out, just giving somebody a chance,” Mahomes said. “It didn’t get anyone a chance to make a play. Even if it’s not open, just throw it up and see what happens.”
“It’s all out in front of us”
The Chiefs have lost two in a row, at Seattle 20-3 a week earlier and now in Denver, and fell to 5-2, a half-game behind the 6-2 Broncos in the AFC West. “We’ve lost these last two games against two really good football teams, but I was proud of how the guys battled,” Mahomes said. “It wasn’t perfect, but we battled, and we’ll learn from it.” He said the division race is a “week at a time, a day at a time, a play at a time” fight.
“Losses are losses,” he said. “I’ll say last week we didn’t have the fight that we had this week. I thought the fight was better this week. But at the end of the day, a loss is a loss. You learn from it, you move on from it.” He said the season is young. “We’re still early in the season, even though it feels like we lost a big game,” Mahomes said. “It’s all out in front of us. We just got to go out there and do it every single day.”
He did not hide the disappointment. “Obviously it sucks now. It’ll suck on the plane ride home, but at the end of the day, we’ll learn from it,” Mahomes said. “We’ll get better from it, and we’ll rebound this next week and go out there and play our best football.” Kansas City hosts the New York Jets on Sunday, November 8, at 1:00 p.m. ET, which is 8:00 p.m. in Cairo.
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