Patrick Mahomes changed into possibly having flashbacks Sunday night time to his days at Texas Tech, when he could scramble round like a kid gambling sandlot football whilst automatically throwing the ball 60-plus times in a recreation.
The Chiefs needed it all — every run, each throw, every backyard — to rally beyond the Tennessee Titans.
Mahomes finished forty three of sixty eight for 446 yards and a touchdown, and he ran for the tying rating and 2-point conversion overdue within the fourth sector, earlier than Harrison Butker atoned for two earlier misses by means of drilling the pass-beforehand discipline aim in extra time and lifting the Chiefs to the 20-17 victory.
“I did no longer realize I threw that many,” Mahomes said with a grin, “however yeah, Texas Tech, I threw a pair, so I’m capable of do it.”
Chiefs instruct Andy Reid advanced to 21-3 coming off a bye by beating a franchise that has lengthy been his nemesis. He was just 2-9 in opposition to the Titans — heck, Reid has 3 wins against the Chiefs — together with a 27-three loss in Nashville final 12 months.It become best the second win for Kansas City (6-2) in its last seven games in opposition to the Titans.
“You have that allows you to win a game like that,” Reid stated, “where the whole lot isn’t just best, and your feelings are up and down and you need to fight via. We have been so near on so many plays. Step up and permit’s move.”Things were spiraling in the direction of some other unhappiness the manner Derrick Henry become chewing up yardage in opposition to the Kansas City protection, and the manner the Titans (5-3) have been shutting down Mahomes and Co. Into the fourth region.
Indeed, the Chiefs had been trailing 17-nine and time changed into strolling out after they took over at their own 7-yard line. But in vintage Mahomes fashion, he willed his group downfield. His 20-yard scramble on third-and-17 kept the force going, and his 1/3-and-9 touchdown scramble along with his 2-point conversion run knotted the game with 2:fifty six to go.
After the Chiefs received the extra time coin toss, the Titans almost stopped them, handiest for Noah Gray to make a nifty third-down trap. Then, Mahomes hit JuJu Smith-Schuster on fourth right down to keep the pressure alive — and the clock shifting.
Butker drilled his 28-yarder to provide Kansas City the lead with 4:04 left in time beyond regulation.
The Chiefs proceeded to stuff Henry, then sacked Titans rookie Malik Willis on back-to-back performs, earlier than batting down his fourth-down throw to cease the sport and send fireworks flying into the sky above Arrowhead Stadium.“When you get to the ones quit of the game conditions,” Mahomes stated, “you have to try to exit there and make it show up.”
Henry finished with 115 yards dashing and two touchdowns for the Titans. But he didn’t get a whole lot of help from Willis, who got his 2d start in place of the injured Ryan Tannehill, and become just five of 16 for eighty yards.
“I’m very upset. I experience terrible for the gamers,” Titans teach Mike Vrabel stated. “They compete, and positioned so much into this, and play through ache and pain and any scenario. I’m fortunate to educate them. They combat.”
The Chiefs figured the exceptional manner to shut down Henry, who had run for 219 yards and two touchdowns final week against Houston, became to maintain him off the field. They opened the sport with a 15-play march that took up 8 1/2 mins and ended in a discipline intention, then forced a punt and went 79 yards with Mahomes finding Hardman for the landing.All told, the Chiefs held the ball almost 13 of the 15 mins inside the first sector.
The Titans in the end got going within the 2nd, and it become Willis using his legs to get Kansas City off balance. The fleet-footed rookie two times scrambled for excellent yardage earlier than Henry turned an instantaneous snap right into a 4-yard TD run.
After forcing a punt, Henry went to paintings once more. He slipped thru the line untouched and changed into eventually dragged down fifty six yards later. Then, the 247-pound jogging again pounded into the stop zone to provide the Titans a 14-9 lead.
It was Henry’s 74th career touchdown run, shifting him past Earl Campbell for the most in franchise history.
The Chiefs, meanwhile, have been incapable of strolling the ball. And with the Titans not involved about stopping the push, they began to relentlessly pressure Mahomes. Denico Autry’s first sack compelled a punt, then his 2nd on third-and-1 near midfield prevented Kansas City from getting factors simply before halftime.