KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For the first time when Patrick Mahomes has been healthy, the Kansas City Chiefs’ offense has looked ordinary in recent weeks.
There have been stretches when he was limited with sprained ankles when the Chiefs didn’t pile up points, but Mahomes has seemed superhuman for much of his NFL career.
Maybe it was unfair to think it would last forever.
“Over the years, the offense has been so good, right?” defensive tackle Chris Jones said. “We’re so used to Pat just going out and scoring 30 points a game, (tight end) Travis (Kelce) having 80 to 100 yards a game. We’ve been so spoiled with that as a team, right?”
The Chiefs’ offense has looked very un-Chiefs-like for much of the season — dropping balls, committing penalties and averaging a paltry NFL-worst 5.3 points per game in the second half entering Week 12’s win at Las Vegas.
Outside of home wins against Chicago and the Los Angeles Chargers, Kansas City was averaging fewer than 20 points per game on offense.
Things looked bleak again as the Chiefs dug an early two-touchdown hole against the feisty Raiders on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium, but Mahomes and company seemed to have rediscovered their mojo in the desert during the final three periods.
“We executed better,” Mahomes said. “We’ve shown that we can move the ball, but penalties and drops and me not getting it to the right guy at the right time ... little things like that have kind of stalled some of our drives. But we went back to fundamentals this week. We kept pressing and pushing and we’re going to try to keep going the rest of the season.”
It started with a 12-yard pass from Mahomes to Kelce early in the second quarter.
Mahomes had misfired on a wide-receiver screen to Rashee Rice to start the drive, but Kelce turned a short pass into a first down and Kansas City rolled from there.
The Chiefs scored touchdowns on four of the next five drives and, at least for a few hours, that Old Pat Magic seemed to be back — yeah, baby!
Maybe it was the razzle-dazzle reverse, flea-flicker that reminded Kansas City of the fun it was used to having on offense.
Maybe it was the fight Justin Watson showed when he picked himself up off the turf after getting decleated by Robert Spillane, caught the game-tying touchdown then chipped in Spillane’s face to let him the Chiefs may have been knocked down but would never stay down.
“We always had belief in those guys,” Jones said. “It’s not a thing where we lose belief in the offense and think that they can’t score. It was just about them finding their rhythm.”
Kansas City didn’t commit a turnover for only the second time all season — the other time came in a win at Minnesota — and limited its penalties, especially the drive-killing offensive penalties that have plagued the offense in recent weeks.
“Those unnecessary things, those things where you kind of shoot yourself in the foot — we eliminated them,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said.
Kansas City hopes to show off its renewed swagger in primetime next Sunday at Green Bay, a game that can be seen on KSHB 41 on NBC’s Sunday Night Football.
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