Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes Says He’d ‘Love’ to Win a Game Before ‘Very Last Play’

Andrew PetersNovember 25, 2024

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Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs improved to 10-1 with a win over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, but like many of their games this season, it came down to the final play.

Seemingly every week the Cheifs have walked away with a win in the final seconds. Mahomes said that while the close games have helped prepare him and his team for the postseason, he wouldn’t mind playing more stress-free games.

“You want to have some blowouts,” Mahomes said, per ESPN’s Adam Teicher. “You want to be a little calmer in the fourth quarter. I’ve always said it can be a good thing as you get to the playoffs and later in the season, just knowing that you’ve been in those moments before and knowing how to kind of attack it.

“But I would love to win a game [before] the very last play.”

The Chiefs have eight wins by seven points or fewer through the first 11 games of the season, the most in NFL history. Five of their 10 wins have come down to the last play, including on Sunday when Spencer Shrader hit a 31-yard walk-off field goal.

They began the season with a win over the Baltimore Ravens that came down to a matter of inches. Ravens’ quarterback Lamar Jackson connected with tight end Isaiah Likely in the end zone, but his foot was just out of bounds, giving Kansas City the win.

That game set the tone for the kind of season the Chiefs were in for.

Since then, they’ve won two games on a field goal, beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in overtime and blocked a field goal to beat the Denver Broncos.

While the Chiefs haven’t been as dominant as some might expect from the defending champs, they’re 10-1 for the first time since 2020 and have beaten a handful of solid teams on their way to that record.

The only blemish on their perfect record was last week’s 30-21 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

Playing close games means Kansas City has to leave its first string in longer and perhaps expel more energy than it would like to, but as Mahomes said, the Chiefs will be well prepared to play a down-to-the-wire playoff game later this year because of the intense games they’ve played during the regular season.