The Kansas City Chiefs have won two Super Bowls with Patrick Mahomes and the offense leading the way.
Six games into this season, however, the defense is making up for the offensive shortcomings. The latest showing came in the Chiefs’ 19-8 win against the Broncos on Thursday at Arrowhead Stadium. But Mahomes says the team’s offensive struggles now will be worth it by season’s end.
“I thought we did a lot of good things,” Mahomes said. “It’s just red zone and some third downs. I still think there was a lot of good things we can take from it. We just got to continue to get better and better. Luckily for us our defense has been playing great so we can go through these growing pains and try to get better and better.
“The talent is there. You can see it in spurts, and we have to learn how to sustain drives and when down in the red zone score touchdowns and make it easier on our defense to play a little bit more free.”
While the Chiefs sacked Russell Wilson four times and picked him off twice, the Chiefs offense had to settle for four Harrison Butker field goals, and the Chiefs scored just one touchdown on offense — a Mahomes TD pass to Kadarius Toney in the second quarter.
The Chiefs did have success moving the ball up and down the field, however, as Mahomes threw for 306 yards, Travis Kelce had 124 yards receiving and Rashee Rice added four catches for 72 yards. But the team’s youth at wide receiver has seemingly slowed the offense down some, though, Mahomes said the youngsters are making plays at crucial times.
“I think there’s always a sense of urgency,” Mahomes said. “You ask the offensive guys in the locker room right now, and they’re going to say that we didn’t play our best and we could’ve done a lot of things better. But we’re lucky enough that our defense is playing so good that we can still win football games.
“And I think at times when it’s most needed guys are making the plays. Skyy (Moore) had that out route at the end of the game, Rashee had a big catch. Guys are making plays when it counts. But as we continue on the season we have to continue to get better and better so that hopefully when we get to the playoffs we’re hitting our stride.”
