Patrick Mahomes reminds everybody who he is with incendiary postseason

Patrick Mahomes struggled at times through an injury-plagued regular season. But he’s all the way back at the best possible time.

When Patrick Mahomes became the third quarterback in NFL history to throw at least 50 touchdown passes in a season, joining Tom Brady and Peyto Manning in doing so, and Mahomes did so at age 23 in 2018, the primary question was, could be do it again?

As it turned out, he couldn’t — at least in the regular season. Mahomes struggled through injuries in his third NFL season and his second as a full-time starter, throwing for 1,066 fewer regular-season yards (5,094 down to 4,031), 34 fewer touchdowns (50 to 26), and 3.2 fewer yards per attempt. His 1,223 passing yards in December did indicate a return to form, but he also threw just seven touchdown passes to three interceptions in that month, so it was impossible to deduce what Mahomes would do in the postseason.

Then came the divisional round against the Texans. Houston went up, 24-0 in the second quarter, and Mahomes responded with a stretch of seven straight touchdown drives and five touchdown passes on the way to a 51-31 Chiefs win. Then, in the AFC Championship game, the Chiefs spotted the Texans a 10-0 lead before Mahomes brought Kansas City into the game with this eight-yard touchdown pitch to Tyreek Hill in which Hill outran everybody…

…and this 20-yarder to Hill that made the score Titans 17, Chiefs 14.

Then, the 27-yard touchdown run from Mahomes that gave the Chiefs a lead they would never relinquish.

And then, just to rub it in, there was this 60-yard touchdown pass to Sammy Watkins in which Mahomes improvised his way out of standard coverage, and Watkins was, as a result, just a little bit open.

Kansas City also went against their quick-strike type in the second half, putting together drives lasting 7:28 and 4:21, taking the air out of Tennessee’s offense and forcing them to be more aerial than they would like.

But Mahomes was the story here. In two postseason games, Mahomes has completed 46 of 70 passes for 615 yards, eight touchdowns, and no interceptions. He also has run 15 times for 106 yards and that amazing touchdown. To put that in perspective, Joe Flacco’s 2012 postseason, generally regarded as the gold standard in recent NFL history, saw him throw for 1,140 yards, 11 touchdown passes and no interceptions — in four games.

Kansas City’s 35-24 win over the Titans takes the Chiefs to the franchise’s first Super Bowl since the end of the 1969 season — yes, that ends a 50-year drought that spanned exactly 800 regular-season and postseason games — and Mahomes has returned to form just in time. Good luck to the defense that has to stop him in Super Bowl LIV, because the 2018 NFL MVP, who has somehow both confirmed and destroyed the regression argument in the same season, is all the way back.