When you visit Patrick Mahomes’ player page on Pro Football Reference, at least two things stand out. First, the man has a LOT of nicknames: Grim Reaper, Showtime, Magic Man, The Musician, Fatrick, The Gunslinger, and Mahomeboy. Second, the Kansas City Chiefs don’t have a losing record against many teams when Mahomes is on the field.
The most glaring example of a team that does seem to have Mr. Mahomes’ number, of course, is the Cincinnati Bengals. Mahomes and the Chiefs knocked Cincinnati around 45-10 in 2018, Mahomes’ first season as an NFL starter and his NFL campaign. Since then, it’s been nothing but disappointment. The Bengals beat Kansas City 34-31 in Week 17 of the 2021 regular season. They beat the Chiefs 27-24 in overtime of the 2021 AFC Championship to advance to Super Bowl LVI. They beat the Chiefs 27-24 in Week 13 of the 2022 season, and they have a chance to make it four in a row (probably by a field goal, if the past is prologue) in Sunday’s AFC Championship rematch.
As a result, the Chiefs are a home underdog in the postseason for the first time in Mahomes’ career.
“Yeah, we’ve obviously lost to this team three times in a row,” Mahomes said this week, when asked about that drought. “And we’ve had great football games against them, but they’ve been able to beat us situationally at the end of games. And so, how can we be better there? We know it’s going to be a close football game. Every team you play in this position is going to be a close football game. But how can we be better situationally that we go out there and that we’re able to execute on third down and the red zone and the end of games in order to win against a good football team?”
If the Chiefs want to avoid having more consecutive losses to the Bengals than Patrick Mahomes has nicknames, they’ll have to accomplish these things on Sunday.
(All advanced metrics courtesy of Football Outsiders, Sports Info Solutions, and Pro Football Focus unless otherwise indicated).