The Kansas City Chiefs remain undefeated thanks to a 30-24 overtime win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
But it wasn’t all plain sailing for the reigning back-to-back Super Bowl champions, as quarterback Patrick Mahomes had to be helped off the field with an ankle injury while throwing a touchdown pass.
‘Showtime’ was escaping pressure before finding running back Samaje Perine with a shovel pass. However, the superstar signal caller planted with his right foot and grimaced as he appeared to injury his ankle.
The NFL world watched with bated breath to see if the consensus best player in football was OK.
Fortunately for the now 8-0 Chiefs, he returned to the game without missing an offensive snap and led the Chiefs to an overtime victory at Arrowhead Stadium.
Head coach Andy Reid, though, was understandably nervous when watching Mahomes hobble off the field.
“Well, when he was being carried off, I wasn’t too easy with it,” Big Red said afterwards.
“I wasn’t sure exactly where he was going to be with it, but he might have the loosest ankles in America. I mean, it’s ridiculous how he can come back from those things, and then he’s mentally tough on top of it.”
“He’s a competitor,” Reid added. “I told him I was going to take him out, and he about wanted to fight me. He’s a tough kid.”
Mahomes admitted the injury was ‘scary’ as it was the same ankle he rolled against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 8.
“I was obviously running for the goal line [and] kind of committed to running the football and at the last second saw Samaje [Perine] and awkwardly rolled the ankle a bit,” Mahomes said.
“The football mentality is to get off the field and we just scored a touchdown, and they told me to just take it slow, and that’s when I started walking and it started feeling better, obviously after I get the re-spat, get that comfortability back, and then [I] took a few drops and felt good.
“Definitely scary, I think it hurt more just because it’s the same ankle I rolled last week, so it scared me a little bit, but once I took my breath and calmed down a little bit, [it] ended up being not too bad, we were able to go in there, get the re-spat and go back on the football field.”
Mahomes was ultimately able to soldier on and finished the game with 291 yards and three touchdowns.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with Taylor Swift watching on, but it was veteran wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who made his first appearance at Arrowhead with his new team, who enjoyed a breakout game.
His chemistry with Mahomes was obvious from the start.
Hopkins hauled in four catches for 30 yards on the opening drive.
In the second quarter, Mahomes threw a 35-yard dot to the wideout. Per NextGenStats, it had a 12.3 percent completion probability, the 4th-most improbable completion of the season, and the most improbable by Mahomes since Week 16, 2018.
‘Nuk’ finished the game with two touchdowns, the first of which came when he found the end zone in the second quarter.
Hopkins immediately hit the Remember the Titans celebration after he was recently traded from the Tennessee Titans.
His second score came in the fourth quarter to make it a 24-17 game and he finished the game with eight catches for 86 yards.
The Bucs managed to rally and force the game to overtime, but Kansas City won the toss and Mahomes led them down the field before running back Kareem Hunt dove in for a walk-off touchdown.
Hopkins proved to be a much needed weapon for Mahomes. The Chiefs’ receiver room has taken blow after blow in recent weeks but Hopkins stepped up to keep their unbeaten start alive.
“I mean, he’s so good at winning one-on-one, and so to be able to have him down in the red zone, third-down situations, he does a good job of filling out and finding those windows kind of like Travis (Kelce) does,” Mahomes told reporters after the game.
“I think as he figures out the whole entire offense he’ll get even better, because there’s some times he’s going places and I’m like man, there’s a time and a place for that, but that’s what makes him great.”
The 32-year-old showed he can be a legitimate WR1 option for Mahomes in the absence of Rashee Rice and Marquise Brown, and Reid’s been impressed with what he’s seen so far.
“First of all, he’s smart, and he’s got a lot of experience,” Reid said. “So, we put more in for him this week, and you know Connor (Embree, wide receivers coach) does a nice job with those guys and getting them ready to go. But DeAndre is a veteran player that’s a smart guy, so that’s most of it right there.”
The Chiefs continue to roll and have not lost a game since Christmas Day last year, against the Raiders.
The Super Bowl three-peat is well and truly on, as is an improbable unbeaten season with nine games of the regular season still to play.
Kansas City will hope to move to 9-0 when they take on the Denver Broncos next week.
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