Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is all too familiar with comeback wins in the playoffs. He needn’t look any further than the inscription on the inside of his Super Bowl ring for a reminder. It’ll read —24, 10, 10 — the deficits the Chiefs had to come back from through Super Bowl LIV to be crowned champions.
As the Jacksonville Jaguars come to town for the divisional round of the playoffs, Mahomes was left in awe of QB Trevor Lawrence’s performance against the Los Angeles Chargers in the wild-card round. That might come as a surprise when you consider his four first-half interceptions, but Mahomes remarked on the mental toughness needed to overcome that 27-point deficit.
“Yeah, that’s tough,” Mahomes said. “When you throw three interceptions, especially in the first half of it – or four interceptions, especially if it’s in the first half – even if it’s your fault or not, that kind of can seep into your mind. ‘Man, like what decisions am I going to make going forward? Do I protect it, or do I stay aggressive?’ But he battled through. That’s a true test of a competitor, that whenever stuff’s not going your way, to still pull your team to find a way to win and he’s done it at every level – high school, college and now, in the NFL. He’s taking that team and they’ve turned it around fast.”
Lawrence stayed aggressive, kept playing his game and didn’t fold despite the circumstances in the early part of the game. The coaches didn’t panic. Lawrence didn’t lose faith in his teammates and vice versa. As Mahomes said, he battled through.
You don’t win many games in the NFL when you throw four interceptions, but now that Lawrence and the Jaguars have, it’s a reminder for Kansas City that they’ll have to keep their foot on the gas no matter the score on Saturday.
“So, he’s a great competitor, and we understand it’ll be a great challenge,” Mahomes said. “And they have a great football team that’s been playing playoff football for like over a month now. So, they understand what it takes to win, and we have to go out there and do whatever we can to win.”
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