Patrick Mahomes still a man nobody wants to see in January or February

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Patrick Mahomes signaled his intentions about this game, and maybe about this season, on one of the worst throws of his life.

It was late in the first half, deep in Kansas City Chiefs territory, when Mahomes planted his left foot, rotated his hips and shot-putted a pass behind him that landed wide of Isiah Pacheco’s feet.

Andy Reid could have thrown a better pass. Taylor Swift could have thrown a better pass.

However, that wasn’t the point. The pass wasn’t just dreadful — it wasn’t a pass at all. The ball was loose, live and available for anyone to grab.

Though Mahomes is not the only NFL quarterback who would’ve grasped this in real time, he might be the only NFL quarterback who would have attacked that bouncing lateral the way he did. New York Giants linebacker Bobby Okereke scooped the fumble at the 10-yard line and figured he had a walk-in touchdown until he was drilled from the side by Mahomes, who ripped the ball from Okereke’s hands while knocking him to the ground.

Mahomes ended up flat on his belly on the 7-yard line, cradling the ball with both hands as if he were protecting a newborn child from a fierce winter wind. This was a lousy 6-6 game at the time, between two 0-2 teams, and the megastar quarterback sacrificed his body as if it were the closing minutes of the Super Bowl.

This loss of 15 yards represented the most significant gain of the night. Mahomes reminded the world yet again that nobody is better at finding ways to solve the game’s riddles.

“That’s how he rolls,” Reid said. “He goes 100 miles an hour. … It seems like every week he does something like that. The guys know that he’s all in. It’s not like he’s just throwing the ball back there. He’s going to do whatever it takes to come out on top in the game.”

In his first start after his 30th birthday, a 22-9 victory over the Giants, Mahomes reminded the league that he remains the same three-time champion and all-time great.

Still a man nobody wants to see in January or February.

“Pat had some really good things he did out there,” Reid said after his man completed 22 of 37 passes for 224 yards and a touchdown, and effectively sealed the W with a 33-yard, fourth-quarter pass to Tyquan Thornton right after a 34-yard scoring pass to Thornton was ruled incomplete.

However, on a night when Mahomes threw two balls backward, not one, his performance wasn’t defined by any throw that cleared the line of scrimmage.

“I don’t think I’ve done it maybe ever in my career,” the quarterback said, “so to do it twice in a short span like that … I will say it was a great tackle.

“That was a big-time tackle. I’m not going to try to do that again. We’ll throw the ball forward from now on.”

It was no coincidence that Mahomes was a different player and Kansas City was a different team after that bruising recovery of his fumble. After Russell Wilson threw an interception in the corner of the end zone, Mahomes got the ball back before the end of the half and went way off-platform on a ridiculously creative scramble to the Giants’ sideline that bought his team three points in the closing seconds.

He made two Giants miss, including the athletic rookie Abdul Carter from point-blank range, motioned downfield and heaved the ball toward Hollywood Brown, drawing a pass interference call on Dru Phillips that gained 52 yards and placed the ball on the 11-yard line with seven seconds left.

The Chiefs opened the second half by taking the ball 74 yards on 11 plays, punctuated by Mahomes’ 5-yard scoring pass to Thornton. It felt like it was game, set, overmatched for the Giants right then and there.

However, it all went back to the Mahomes play on Okereke that prevented the Giants from scoring points. Stopped them from believing this home opener could be one to remember.

Mahomes steals back the fumble after the backwards pass

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“It was a huge play,” Mahomes said. “It was fixing my own mistake. It’s hard to take credit for it because you’re the reason it happened. But obviously, he went to pick the ball up. I could see his eyes get big like he was about to score a touchdown.

“You’ve got to finish in this game. You’ve got to compete. You’ve got to love the game, and whenever you make a mistake, you’ve got to leave it all on the line.”

In the fourth quarter, Mahomes also left it all on the line when he absorbed a direct shot to the ribs from Dexter Lawrence on a critical third-down pass intended for Brown that found Thornton instead. Whatever works. It’s the Chiefs Way.

Mahomes managed to avoid a 0-3 start, even with Rashee Rice serving a suspension, Xavier Worthy sitting out with a shoulder injury and Travis Kelce battling the undefeated forces of gravity and time. Once again, Kelce got into it good with Reid on the sideline. The coach threw his left shoulder into Kelce, knocking him back a step and then spoke later of how much he loves the tight end’s passion. History is written by the victors, after all.

I actually think this is positive. I like seeing Andy Reid get passionate even with all his success, and still having no fear getting into Travis Kelce's grill. #Chiefspic.twitter.com/eW4NlkTtkM

— JosinaAnderson (@JosinaAnderson) September 22, 2025

Meanwhile, on the other side of the field, Wilson had been waiting for this home opener gone wrong ever since he signed with the Giants as a $10.5 million stopgap starter. His Seahawks destroyed Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl here a dozen years ago, and he spent this week at his team’s nearby practice facility staring at MetLife and basking in the memories.

In the lead-up to the game, Wilson recalled his first meeting with Mahomes on a Sunday night in 2018 in Seattle, where each quarterback threw for three scores in the Seahawks’ 38-31 victory.

“I knew he was going to be great then,” Wilson said.

Mahomes has advanced to seven consecutive AFC Championship Games. He has advanced to five of the last six Super Bowls, winning three of them.

“He wants to be the greatest player ever,” Reid said after that second championship. “That’s what he wants to do.”

He proved that again Sunday night, putting himself in harm’s way to temper the effects of the loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in Brazil and the home loss to the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles. It was an ugly game against an ugly opponent, but Mahomes found a unique way to make this night his.

Soon enough, he will get his weapons back, and the Chiefs will become the Chiefs again. By January, the entire league will be quietly saying the same things they’ve whispered in the past.

Nobody wants to see Patrick Mahomes with the ball in a sudden-death game.

(Photo: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)