KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The play was supposed to be a run for Darrel Williams.
Instead, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes fumbled the snap for a second straight week.
Mahomes’ first instinct was to scramble for whatever yards he could get after picking up the ball.
Instead, he spotted tight end Travis Kelce a few yards downfield.
Mahomes decided belatedly to chuck it to his sure-handed buddy.
Instead, the ball slipped from Mahomes’ hand, went almost straight into the air and was intercepted by Bobby McCain.
With it went any hope the Chiefs had to score — and tie the game or take the lead — late in the first half Sunday against the Washington Football Team at FedEx Field.
“It was bad,” Mahomes said after the game. “... But you’ve got to bounce back in this league. It’s going to look bad. It’s probably going to be on ‘C’mon, Man’ or something like that.”
“C’mon, Man” is a weekly segment on ESPN’s Monday night pregame show that highlights some of the previous weekend’s NFL lowlights.
Mahomes’ miscue — one of two interceptions he threw, giving him eight on the season — almost certainly will make the cut.
But so too will a few highlights after he finished the game 32 of 47 for a season-high 397 yards with two second-half touchdowns, leading the Chiefs to a 31-13 comeback win with a dominant second half after trailing 13-10 at halftime.
“The biggest thing was the guys kept believing in me; that was the biggest thing to me,” Mahomes said. “Orlando (Brown Jr.), Travis (Kelce), Tyreek (Hill) — all those guys, they came right up to me and were like, ‘You keep being you. We know you’re competing; we know who you are. Don’t let that one thing affect how you play.’
"You saw in the second half. I kept doing stuff, kept throwing across my body and doing all that different type of stuff because I know those guys believe in me, and I’m going to keep being that and keep fighting until the end.”
Kansas City head coach Andy Reid said it’s not hard to surmise the root cause of the turnovers, including another interception off a ball that went through wide receiver Hill’s hands earlier in the first half.
“It’s not good, but he came back and he’s such a tough competitor,” Reid said. “He’s trying to make things happen, and he was probably forcing it there. I think that’s obvious, but you really can’t do that.”
Mahomes was 13 of 23 for 222 yards with no touchdowns and two picks in the first half, a dismal 53.2 quarterback rating.
He went 19 of 24 for 175 yards with two scores and no turnovers in the second half, a robust 124.83 QB rating.
Mahomes, who threw only six interceptions in 2020 and only five in 2019, isn’t happy with the early-season struggles. But he said winning makes it easier to swallow, so he won’t dwell on the mistakes or let them define and change him.
“I just move on to the next play,” Mahomes said. “... I’ve had a lot of interceptions this year. It’s not a secret. You kind of have to just move and keep playing.”
