Patrick Mahomes on loss to Bengals: ‘We were playing not to lose’

As Herm Edwards unforgettably assoonas stated, “You play to win the videogame.”

And according to Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, that’s the precise opposite of what the group did throughout its AFC Championship loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in January.

Everything was going the Chiefs’ method at the beginning of the affair, and Mahomes’ team looked poised to book another journey to the Super Bowl after structure a 21-3 benefit midway through the 2nd quarter. The lead diminished to 21-10 by halftime, however still, all indications pointed to K.C. conveniently dealingwith its organization in the 2nd half and moving on to the season’s last videogame.

But Cincinnati popped any ballooning hopes the Chiefs had developed up when the 2nd half got inprogress, and 30 minutes lateron, the Bengals were the conference’s agent in Super Bowl LVI, havingactually finished the biggest return in AFC Championship Game history.

Mahomes showed on the collapse in a current interview with The Ringer, providing readers an inside look into the remorse he brings from the memorable turn-around.

“We were playing not to lose [in the second half of that game],” Mahomes informed the website. “The 2nd half of that videogame, I wear’t desire to state we unwinded, however I mean when you lead like you did, you desire to make sure you win the videogame, however you wear’t desire to play like you’re playing not to lose. And I feel like that’s what we did. As a group, we were playing not to lose, we were playing simply to get to the Super Bowl.

“If you look, they didn’t do much various from the veryfirst half to the 2nd half. We simply didn’t carryout at a high sufficient level. They were playing the verysame protections and we weren’t carryingout. Then momentum gets in the other group’s favor and when you’re playing a great football group, bad things occurs.”

Former Packers WR Greg Jennings comprehends those beliefs completely.

“This is one of the issues I have with leads in the NFL: Coaches start to get quite conservative with the playcalling,” he stated Tuesday on “First Things .” “Mike McCarthy had this quite bad as well[in Green Bay] Players start to get disappointed, and the quarterback’s disappointment equated into a shock in the plays they were being offered.

“Any rival desires to simply play, I wear’t care if we’re up 40-0 or down 40-0. They desire to put their foot on the gas and go. It’s tough to play it safe. And when you have absolutelynothing to lose — which the Cincinnati Bengals didn’t — they’re going to shoot every bullet they have. The Chiefs set themselves up for death.”

Jennings was fast to point out, though, that Mahomes’ private efficiency in the last 2 quarters wasn’t up to snuff either.

“[Mahomes] didn’t have a excellent 2nd half. He did not conquered the problems that we usually haveactually seen [from] Patrick Mahomes under Andy Reid.”

Mahomes’ 2nd half was a incredible aberration from his normal output.

After going a outstanding 18-for-21 (85.7%) through the air and tossing 3 TDs alongwith 220 backyards in the veryfirst half, he dropped off to 8-for-18 (44.4%), with simply 55 passing lawns, no TDs and 2 INTs after halftime.