‘Dad bod’ Patrick Mahomes uses legs to embarrass 49ers with truck-stick TD, fly-by sideline sprint

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Malik Mustapha led all players with 12 tackles Sunday afternoon at Levi’s Stadium.

A thumping rookie safety for the San Francisco 49ers, Mustapha even briefly knocked Kansas City Chiefs rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy from the game with a bone-crunching third-quarter hit.

But the 5-foot-10, 206-pound Mustapha won’t enjoy watching his meeting with 6-foot-2, 225-pound quarterback Patrick Mahomes at the goal line early in the fourth quarter during film study.

“He caught him just right,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “That guy’s a good player and a good hitter. Pat was able to drop his shoulder on him and get in the end zone.”

Mahomes rocked Mustapha, buckling him backward and sending him tumbling to the end-zone turf, as he delivered the game-winning touchdown for Kansas City on a fourth-and-inches scramble.

“Pat’s bigger than people think,” running back Kareem Hunt, who scored twice on short runs in the second quarter, said. “He dropped the shoulder on him. I like that.”

Mahomes denied trying to run over Mustapha, which is expected from an abundance of respect and a desire to avoid painting a larger-than-necessary target on his back.

“I was actually not trying to lower my shoulder,” Mahomes said. “I was trying to absorb the hit, because I knew it was going to be right there in the end zone. That dad bod, man. I had enough weight on me where he just went down. It wasn’t like I was necessarily trying to seek out contact. I was trying to absorb it and get in the end zone. It just ended up looking good for me.”

The Chiefs’ QB also said he doesn’t plan to make a habit of lowering his shoulder at the goal line.

“The last time I lowered my shoulder was against Iowa State,” Mahomes said. “I got an AC sprain and Iowa State beat me by like 56 points, so I’ve stayed away from that.”

Coach Andy Reid — who admires Mahomes’ competitive nature, even if he doesn’t always love the way it manifests — won’t be adding QB power runs to the playbook anytime soon.

Asked about whether he’d advise Mahomes to avoid trying to run over defenders, Reid said, “Yeah, especially on those shoulders, but it’s all right.”

Mahomes’ 1-yard touchdown wasn’t his only, nor perhaps his best, highlight as a runner during Sunday’s 28-18 win in the Super Bowl LVIII rematch.

Late in the third quarter with Kansas City nursing a 14-12 lead, both tackles got instantly beat on second-and-7 from the San Francisco 37-yard line.

Mahomes immediately stepped up and was flushed from the pocket to the left, where he had to outrun linebacker Fred Warner’s angle on the edge to turn upfield.

Hunt, who’d held up Warner with a block, nudged 49ers linebacker Dee Winters a few yards downfield, allowing Mahomes to slam on the brakes as Winters flew out of bounds a yard from the first down. Suddenly, the sidelined opened wide with nothing but green grass ahead of Mahomes.

“He’s good at making people miss in space,” Hunt said. “He’s just a playmaker. Whenever the ball’s in his hand, he can make plays with arm or his legs.”

Thirty-three yards later, which is the longest run of Mahomes’ career, he was knocked out of bounds at San Francisco’s 4-yard line.

“I need to get my yards up, because 33 (yards) is not that long,” Mahomes said.

It was plenty long enough Sunday to help deliver yet another Kansas City win — and he’s got another level he can go to if the situation calls for it.

“I was actually stopping and was just going to try to get the first down,” Mahomes said. “I haven’t seen the play, but the dude either overran it or he got blocked there. Once I got down the sideline, it opened up. I thought about cutting it back, but I’ll save that for the playoffs.”

Mahomes finished with five carries for 39 yards after two kneel downs to end the game.

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