Five turnovers by Patrick Mahomes were what cost the Chiefs a win against the Rams, and Mahomes knows he can’t let that happen against elite competition.
After the Kansas City Chiefs were upended 54-51 by the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes knows that he should’ve performed better than he did.
That’s not how a quarterback usually feels after he throws six touchdown passes, throws for nearly 500 yards, and his team puts up 51 points.
Despite Mahomes lighting up the scoreboard at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, much like he’s done all year, he also played a big part in why the Rams won the game. He turned the ball over five times, including a pick six and a fumble returned for a touchdown. Another one of his fumbles eventually led to a Rams touchdown as well.
As expected, the turnovers are what the 23-year-old can’t get out of his head. In Kansas City’s only other loss this year — a 43-40 defeat to the New England Patriots back in Week 6 — Mahomes had two big interceptions as well.
New England and Los Angeles are two of the NFL’s elite teams, and the Chiefs went toe-to-toe with them. Had it not been for Mahomes’ costly turnovers, they most likely would’ve beaten both of them.
“The turnovers, they just changed the game,” Mahomes said, via NFL.com. “I gave them 21 points, pretty much, through turnovers. It was kind of like the New England game. You can’t give good teams points turning the ball over and that was the turning point of the game.”
Essentially, the Chiefs win games as long they don’t turn the ball over. But against the best competition the NFL has to offer, Mahomes knows that isn’t an excuse to get sloppy.
The Chiefs will play nothing but elite competition in January. If they are going to reach the Super Bowl, Mahomes won’t be able to afford to gift-wrap points to the other team.
Kansas City is still in great shape at 9-2, the No. 1 team in the AFC. But considering how costly the turnovers were, Mahomes will probably look at back at those two losses and think about how close the Chiefs were to winning both of them.