Patrick Mahomes II had led the Kansas City Chiefs again to the Super Bowl with one good ankle, unusual ache tolerance and a surplus of grit and guts. He had hopped, skipped, limped and hobbled previous Burrow and the fearless Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC championship recreation. On his closing snap, Mahomes made an audacious sprint to the first down marker, at which level Bengals defensive finish Joseph Ossai’s lamentable shove offered the requisite yardage for Harrison Butker to boot the tiebreaking, game-winning area purpose from 45 yards.
The Chiefs’ 23-20 victory pushed Mahomes to his third Super Bowl in 5 seasons as an NFL starter and offered one other profession milestone for the quarterback who has already develop into a legend at 27. Quarterbacking by means of an damage that will have sidelined many gamers, after every week of ceaseless rehab, Mahomes handed for 326 yards and two touchdowns and, in the finish, conjured victory in the span of 27 seconds. The Chiefs reached one other Super Bowl behind a constellation of memorable performances, beginning with the damaging cross speeding of defensive deal with Chris Jones. They received foremost due to Mahomes’s unparalleled expertise and irrepressible will.
“He was hurting pretty bad,” Mahomes Sr. mentioned. “I’ve been texting with him all week. He’s telling me, ‘Dad, I’m making progress, but I’m still hurting.’ I knew he was going to gut it out and do it. I’ve seen him do it in college. I’ve seen him do it before. So I knew he would be all right.”
All week, Mahomes required fixed care. He utilized ice, warmth, tape and resistance bands to the proper ankle he had badly sprained every week earlier than, when Jacksonville Jaguars defensive finish Arden Key crashed onto his leg and bent it at an terrible angle. He lacked velocity and principally lingered in the pocket, like Michael Jordan remaining earthbound in his prime. Nobody inside the Chiefs group doubted he would play, however solely as a result of he’s Patrick Mahomes.
“He was certainly a lot more injured today than I think he even showed out there,” Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach mentioned. “He had a high ankle [sprain]. Those are super painful. Some guys miss two, three weeks. But it doesn’t surprise me he’s able to grit it out and perform and make plays when we needed it.”
Mahomes’s capability to play started together with his unusual capability to heal. In 2019, he sprained his left ankle in Week 1 and returned the following week. He dislocated his kneecap later that season and needed to return instantly; he missed only some video games with an damage that may threaten a participant’s season.
“His mama has some different genes,” mentioned Mahomes Sr., a retired main league aid pitcher. “She’s double-jointed and all that. He gets that from his mama. The athletic ability comes from me. That part comes from his mama.”
“It’s just in his wiring,” Veach mentioned. “From the time he was a young kid, he’s always been the ultimate competitor, just that will to win instilled in him at an early age.”
Mahomes’s availability started with Chiefs assistant athletic coach Julie Frymyer. She deliberate his rehab and stayed tethered to him inside the crew facility. She centered on rising his mobility and lateral motion, utilizing resistance bands to stretch and strengthen the muscle tissues, ligaments and tendons round his ankle.
“Julie WAS the reason I was the guy I was on the field today!” Mahomes wrote on Twitter after the recreation. “It takes everyone but she led the charge all week!”
Mahomes “lived in the training room,” Coach Andy Reid mentioned. Even at residence, he utilized fixed ice and warmth. Sometimes he requested his spouse, Brittany, to be part of him whereas he handled his ankle so he might see his kids.
At the finish of Thursday’s observe, the Chiefs’ most intense session of the week, Mahomes decided the tape round his ankle was too restrictive. “He was feeling pretty ginger,” backup quarterback Chad Henne mentioned. “Once he got the tape off, he was like, ‘Oh, I feel free.’ ” But Mahomes wanted tape to brace the ankle, so trainers adjusted how they utilized it.
Even as he rehabbed, Mahomes refused to take a snap off at observe. He participated so utterly that the Chiefs didn’t embody him on their official damage report.
“There was no doubt in my mind he was going to be there,” tight finish Travis Kelce mentioned. “I knew for a fact he was going to give this city and this organization and all the guys he goes to work with every single day everything he has.”
Mahomes knew his ankle would pressure concessions. When he handed, he would rely strictly on arm energy. “Back leg, that’s all your power,” Henne mentioned. Mahomes knew he would throw extra fast passes and check-downs than normal. Henne, the veteran who relieved Mahomes briefly final week towards Jacksonville, advised the youthful quarterback, “Just hit the first open guy and don’t take any unnecessary hits.” Typically an escape artist in shoulder pads, Mahomes confined himself to the pocket.
“I didn’t have that burst that I usually have,” Mahomes mentioned.
Mahomes piloted the Chiefs to a 13-6 halftime lead, shifting nicely inside small areas. The Bengals had ready for Mahomes as if he could be full energy, however as they realized Mahomes could be pocket-bound, they adjusted. No defenders accounted for Mahomes’s scrambling. On the uncommon performs he tried to squirt by means of the pocket, his lack of acceleration prevented large features. Before his closing scamper, Mahomes had run solely twice for 3 yards.
On the Chiefs’ second possession of the second half, Mahomes rolled to his left to escape linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither’s blitz. He noticed vast receiver Mecole Hardman open throughout the center, which compelled him to plant his proper foot, twist his higher physique and sling a cross. He knew stopping could be his most painful act, and as he slowed down, he took an ungainly step. He limped again to the huddle, his gait affected for the remainder of the night time.
“They got me [as] close as they could to 100 percent,” Mahomes mentioned, “and then I just battled through.”
The worst ache Mahomes felt all recreation got here after the ball slipped out of his hand as he tried a fast cross. He dived for the fumble right into a pileup of our bodies, unable to shield his ankle. The Bengals emerged with the ball. Mahomes staggered off the area. As the recreation wore on, he appeared to take into consideration the place of his ankle on each step.
“I was definitely staying a lot more warm today than normally,” Henne mentioned. “Always trying to keep my legs loose, just in case. You could be one hit away or just one bad fall.”
Mahomes operated with a diminished receiving corps. Kelce had injured his again at observe Friday and wakened Sunday unsure whether or not he would play. JuJu Smith-Schuster and Kadarius Toney, two of Mahomes’s prime vast receivers, exited with accidents. On the Chiefs’ penultimate drive, Mahomes recorded a primary down with a cross throughout his physique, drifting left, to Marcus Kemp — a large receiver who had caught 4 passes in his five-year profession, none this season. Mahomes felt comfy with Kemp as a result of they had been rookies collectively in 2017 and he had thrown to him on the Kansas City scout crew.
The Chiefs’ line of defense swamped Burrow to stall Cincinnati’s final drive in the closing minute of the fourth quarter. With the rating tied at 20, rookie Skyy Moore returned Drue Chrisman’s ill-fated, line-drive punt 29 yards to the Kansas City 47-yard line. Mahomes trotted to the area with 30 seconds left.
Butker possesses one in every of the strongest legs in the NFL, sometimes ready to blast area targets from almost 70 yards. The situations shrank his vary. The wind chill dipped to close to 0 levels by recreation’s finish, and the chilly air left footballs deflated on the inside and hardened on the outdoors. In warmups, Butker had come up brief on a 55-yard attempt. He advised coaches he had a restrict of 53 yards and was not sure he might make that. To give Butker a sensible probability, the Chiefs would wish to advance a minimum of 20 yards, to the Bengals’ 33-yard line.
The drive started with Mahomes’s lateral cross to Isiah Pacheco, who couldn’t get out of bounds after a six-yard acquire. The Chiefs burned their closing timeout. An incomplete cross left them with third and 4 with 17 seconds left.
Mahomes took a shotgun snap and dropped again to his personal 41. As Bengals defensive deal with B.J. Hill closed in, Mahomes scooted up in the pocket. He noticed no open receivers and shuffled proper, round defensive finish Sam Hubbard. Space opened towards the sideline. If he ran, he would wish to attain each the Cincinnati 43-yard line and the sideline to protect the drive. He sprinted.
“That’s just all heart,” Henne mentioned. “He knew he needed to make a play there and get us in field goal position. That’s just heart and determination.”
As Mahomes neared the sideline, Hubbard dived at him from behind, unable to attain him. Mahomes glided previous the marker.
“We got a family motto: Players make plays,” Mahomes Sr. mentioned. “And so he made a play.”
After Mahomes had taken two strides out of bounds, Ossai shoved him to the floor. An official hurled a flag as Mahomes slid on the yellowed grass close to the Bengals’ bench. Fifteen extra yards gave the Chiefs the ball at the 27.
“On that last play, you saw it all come together, man,” Kelce mentioned. “It’s moments like that just make it that much more special to be his teammate.”
Butker trotted onto the area. He swung his leg and drilled a kick he believed would have traveled about 65 yards on a traditional day. Holder Tommy Townsend hugged him instantly, however Butker required affirmation. The ball floated simply over the crossbar. Mahomes waved celebrating teammates off the area, recognizing that three seconds remained. After the Bengals’ determined kick return went nowhere, the Chiefs had made it again to the Super Bowl.
Mahomes will arrive in Arizona to face the Philadelphia Eagles with contemporary perspective. At 24, he received MVP as the Chiefs captured their first Super Bowl in 50 years. He has since collected aggressive scars. He suffered a blowout loss in the subsequent Super Bowl, and the Chiefs blew a 21-3 lead to the Bengals in final 12 months’s AFC championship recreation.
“When I first got in the league, it all happened so fast,” Mahomes mentioned. “I won the MVP, I won the Super Bowl, and I thought that’s just kind of how it went. Now that I’ve dealt with failure, I know how much hard work and daily grind that it takes. And so I’m just excited to get to that game with the teammates that I have.”
Mahomes climbed the podium erected in the center of the area, surrounded by teammates and Chiefs officers. After the televised ceremony, he limped to the facet railing, noticed his household beneath and waved them over. Brittany and Mahomes’s brother, Jackson, hoisted the quarterback’s child woman, Sterling, up to him.
Minutes later, Mahomes held on to the facet railings with each palms as he descended the stairs, a closing reminder of what it took to get there. For the second, he cradled the Lamar Hunt trophy in his left hand and put his proper arm round Brittany as she held Sterling. They posed for a photograph, the closing picture of an evening that confirmed, once more, how Patrick Mahomes is totally different from all the relaxation.