Nothing went according to plan for the Chiefs in Week 3. Having started the 2022 NFL season on the right foot, Kansas City took a step back in its trip to Indianapolis, suffering a 20-17 defeat at the Colts.
Unlikethe previousweeks, Patrick Mahomes and the offense struggled to get things going. The star quarterback didn’t seem to be pleased with the play-calling, especially at the end of the second quarter.
After running the clock instead of attempting to reach the field goal range, the cameras captured Mahomes and Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy having an argument when the team was heading to the locker room.
Patrick Mahomes opens up on exchange with Eric Bieniemy
“I mean, at the end of the day I wanted to go try to score. I mean, that’s just who I am,” Mahomes said postgame, via Jeff Kerr ofCBS Sports. “We were in a tough situation. Probably the smart decision was to just take — we got the ball at the half and just go to halftime, but I’m always going to be wanting to score.
“I pretty much just said, ‘Let me have a chance at it,’ and then he was just, like, ‘Let’s get back in the locker room and we’ll get something going for the next half.’ I guess, I don’t know if that’s an altercation, but that was the end of the conversation.”
Mahomes takes blame for Chiefs’ first loss of the season
However, that doesn’t mean that Mahomes didn’t take responsibility for the team’s loss. In the contrary, the Chiefs quarterback said the defeat it’s on him for failing to produce more points.
“It starts with me,” Mahomes said. “There were certain throws that I was putting on guy’s back hips instead of in front of them. There were certain situations where we were just barely off. If it was a D-lineman that got around my feet, and I missed Justin Watson or if it was a throw at the end of the game where I could have maybe put it in front of JuJu (Smith-Schuster) and it gets tipped up for a pick, it’s little things like that.
“Whenever you are playing a tough game like that, you have to execute at a higher level, and we have to learn from it. Our schedule gets no easier. We have a hard game next week against a great defense. We have to get better quickly.If we don’t, well, we don’t want these L’s to start piling up. We want to make sure we get back on that winning train.”
The Chiefs certainly didn’t expect to return from Indianapolis empty-handed, but now they have to turn the page. A tough game awaitsthem on Sunday night, when they visit Tom Brady and the Buccaneersin Tampa Bay.
