Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs’ No. 1 ranked offense ran into a defensive buzzsaw in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a 31-9 Super Bowl LV loss on Sunday night. Held to single-digit points for the first time since November 2017, the Chiefs simply could not get in a groove, with Mahomes completing just 26-of-49 passes for 270 yards and two interceptions.
Some combination of a lingering turf toe injury, Todd Bowles’ scheme, inconsistent officiating and a banged-up offensive line — which contributed to Mahomes running around for a record 497 yards while avoiding sacks while being pressed on 52% of his dropbacks, per ESPN Stats & Info — led to the Chiefs’ worst performance of the season.
On Monday, Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe, co-host of Fox Sports’ Skip and Shannon: UNDISPUTED, placed the majority of the blame on No. 15 despite an otherwise gutsy showing by the superstar signal-caller.
“He’s taken a lot of tests and he’s aced a lot of them, but this test he failed,” Sharpe told co-host Skip Bayless on Monday. “He got an F. There’s no way around it. Shannon Sharpe will always be fair. A lot of people think I don’t like their team or don’t like a certain player, but I’m gonna call it like I see it. [Mahomes] failed this test. Now he has aced a lot of tests, in the regular season and in the playoffs, but not this one.
“He threw two interceptions. Six times they got the ball to the 30-yard-line of the Buccaneers and they came away with nine points. That’s not good enough. He’s too good to allow that to happen. And he never put Tampa in a situation where they had to do anything other than what they were doing. … He never put Tampa in fear. They were able to do what they wanted to do defensively and it’s just disappointing considering how great he is. I believe he’ll bounce back, but the test last night, the Super Bowl LV test that was given to Patrick Mahomes, he got a failing grade.”
"Mahomes has taken and aced a lot of tests, but this test he failed. He got an F, there's no way around it. He never put Tampa in fear."
— @ShannonSharpe pic.twitter.com/XvLYqcnHHI
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) February 8, 2021
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Mahomes on O-Line Struggles: ‘A Lot of It’s on Me’
During his year-end press conference on Monday, Mahomes was asked for his thoughts on why the league’s top-ranked offense struggled so much against the Buccaneers. His response was a humble one, accepting at least partial blame for putting his offensive line in a tough position to protect him while scrambling.
Mahomes: “I thought the guys did a good job but we didn’t execute at a high enough level.” Says he was out of sync with receivers, etc.
“Sometimes it gets put on the O-Line because I was scrambling around…but a lot of it’s on me.” #Chiefs
— Breland Moore (@BrelandKCTV5) February 8, 2021
The 25-year-old gave a similar response during his weekly radio spot on The Drive, addressing the topic of injuries along the frontline and their impact on Sunday’s final outcome.
“You deal with injuries in football and you have to have guys step up and play,” Mahomes told 610 Sports Radio Kansas City. “I thought our guys played hard last night. They fought to the very end. There was times in the game where I held the ball too long. There was times in the game where guys fell down on their routes. It’s not only on them. For me, it was just about execution more than anything.”
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Chris Licata is an NFL contributor covering the Kansas City Chiefs from enemy territory in Denver, Colorado. Follow him on Twitter @Chris__Licata or join the Heavy on Chiefs Facebook community for the latest out of Chiefs Kingdom!
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