The Kansas City Chiefs’ divisional round victory over the Buffalo Bills was a nail-biter of an ending featuring bug plays from various players. Patrick Mahomes was calm and efficient in his first road postseason victory with the help of his offensive weapons, stepping up in clutch moments and erasing the issues that plagued the unit in the regular season.
Mahomes had a much-needed spark from veteran wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling on Sunday night. After a season of criticism for lack of production, Valdes-Scantling hauled two catches for 62 yards, effectively getting past the Buffalo secondary on deep routes for significant chunks of yards. Mahomes shared his appreciation for the performance during his postgame press conference.
“Yeah, I mean, they played a lot of man coverage,” Mahomes explained. “When you play man coverage and playoff football, and they put that much attention on Travis (Kelce), and they had a little attention on Rishee (Rice) as well, you guys got to make plays.
“We’ve seen MVS in playoff games make a lot of big plays happen. No matter what’s happened all year long, he’s kept the momentum, the mindset, the mentality that he’s gonna keep working and working for moments like this. And he did a great job, made some big-time catches, and had a big game.”
Valdes-Scantling had a rough regular season stats-wise, with 21 catches for 315 yards and one touchdown. He showed Sunday his veteran mindset to be effective regardless of all the outside noise.
OKAY MVS 🫡 pic.twitter.com/PLFB8ZrE0j
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) January 22, 2024
“I [have] got to trust him,” Mahomes said. “I got to trust in eleven (MVS). He comes to work every single day, and even though he’s gotten some hate from outside the building, we trust and love him here. We know he will make big plays whenever his number is called. He did that today in a big game. We’re gonna try to carry that momentum [into] next week.”
The Chiefs were without wide receiver Kadarius Toney for a fifth consecutive game on Sunday, and Skyy Moore is continuing to recover from his injury. Valdes-Scantling remains needed in the Chiefs receivers room and the postseason.