Here’s what Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said after the 17-14 victory Sunday over the Falcons:
Are you more focused on surviving this game or more focused on what didn’t go right? “I mean, first of all, I’ve got to focus on fixing the things I made mistakes on during the game. There was a lot of reads, a lot of protection calls, a lot of adjustments at the line of scrimmage that I made wrong or that I didn’t make the right way that put us in bad positions, and so I’ve got to focus on getting myself better to help out the team. I mean then again at the end of the day, the defense played their tail off in that game and to give us a chance and the offense found a way to score a touchdown when we needed to, so that’s just that championship swagger as Tyrann (Mathieu) would say, of knowing how to win a game even when you’re not playing well.”
Is the bye more important this year because there is only one in the AFC? “Yeah, obviously you want to get it. It’s one of your goals when you go into the season. If you look at the history of that bye week, usually it’s a good thing for the teams trying to make a championship run, but at the end of the day, we got to find a way to win a football game whenever we get there. For us, we have to get better, offensively I have to get better to put us in the right position so that we can go out there and execute at a higher level when we get to playoffs when we need to go out there and score.”
What was your view of Tyreek Hill’s touchdown saving play and what did you say to him afterward “That’s the heart and the championship swagger – I’ll say it again, two times in one interview – that you need on a team. The fact that him battling through injury already, to be out there during that game and to make that play, I missed on a tackle during that pick, for him to follow the ball and play, I mean you have to have those type of guys on your team if you want to win football games.”
How much did what the Falcons were doing defensively affect you or was it just a bad day at the office? “I mean, they have a great defense. They have a lot of great players over there, they have a ton of talent, they’ve been in close games every single game this year pretty much. Definitely they did some stuff that was some good stuff, but there was stuff that I didn’t see that I usually do and so there was some times that I was hot in the game because I didn’t slide the line the right way, there were some times I checked to certain plays and they weren’t open and so you got to be better if you want to win football games in this league. Luckily enough our defense made the stops necessary to give us a chance at the end and we found a way to score a touchdown.”
Can you walk us through the touchdown to Demarcus Robinson? How good did it feel to get that touchdown in the endzone? “Yeah, it felt great. D-Rob ran a heck of a route and Tyreek (Hill) took a safety out from the middle of the field and D-Rob was one-on-one on an island and ran a little trickle move and was able to get himself open. The offensive line gave me time and then I just fired it and let him make a play on it. When you execute like that, I go through the reads the right way, we’re a hard offense to stop so I got to try to make sure we get back to that and I’m excited for the next few weeks ahead and being able to go out there and execute at a higher level.”
Did the challenges early in the game from the Falcons allow you guys to figure out the play to Demarcus Robinson to get open? “Well first, it was built up all game. We weren’t in the right situation to call that play. We had it up there and Coach Reid saved it for the right moment and Coach EB (Eric Bieniemy) brought it in and they called the right play at the right time and got the guy wide open. Just executing at a high level at the right moments can win you football games in this league and we were able to do that.”
Can you explain the thought process of the Sammy Watkins trick play and why it didn’t work out? “Yeah, obviously we didn’t end up in a situation that we wanted. They brought a lot of man type pressure in that situation and so we were going to try to sneak me out the back side and be wide open for a walk-in touchdown, but obviously they had a guy out there. I mean they had to have the biggest, fastest guy possibly with number 22, (Keanu) Neal. I knew I wasn’t in a good situation at that point, so I told Sammy before the play, “its fourth down, you got to throw it even if I’m covered.” He had the leverage on me and I’m probably going to be on ‘You Got Mossed’ on Monday so I’m looking forward to that.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
What are the qualities of Travis Kelce that makes him reliable for you particularly in pressure situations? How often does he do something that he hasn’t done before in moving where he moves to get open? “Yeah, I mean I think it’s a quality that we have with a lot of guys on this team. It’s that no matter how talented and how much success guys have on this team, they just want to win and they want to win for the guys next to them and then you see a guy like Travis, he’s a guy that – he’s done it for a long time, he’s been at the top of the game, he’s been able to do TV shows and all these different things, he’s a well-known guy but he works his tail off every single day and he’s practicing every single day and he’s making sure he’s prepared for these moments. For a guy to have that much talent, work that hard and be able to learn really every single day like that, that’s what makes him so special on the field. Yeah, I mean, he just has a good recognition of recognizing coverages and then being able to get himself open. You saw that on the play at the very end in that two-minute drive. He was actually supposed to run kind of a go type route and then settle down a little bit deeper, but he saw the open space, so he settled down even earlier for me to get the ball out of my hand. He just recognizes coverages like that is what gets him open in those pressure type situations where we’re getting exotic coverages where you may have not scouted for.”
Do you see today as a step back from the progress of making it to the playoffs? “I think it was just a bad day for the offense starting with me not getting going early and then not executing in the second half. I thought the defense played their tail off against a really good offense and to have that type of defense going into the playoffs, kind of like we did last year they’re getting better every single week, I feel like the offense will figure it out and having a full team like that will get us to where we want to be at.”
Would you rather keep playing or sit and rest in the next game? “I just trust in the coaches. I’m going to be ready to go whenever that is. I’m going to be ready to try to win a football game. Coach Reid has done this a long time and Coach EB (Eric Bieniemy) has done this a long time, all those guys have done this for a long time and they know what’s best for the team and we’ll be ready to go whenever that is.”
Falcons’ 2021 draft position
(Before Week 16 action)
1. Jacksonville
2. New York Jets
3. Cincinnati
4. Carolina
5. Falcons
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