Playing with a toe injury that may require surgery, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was under duress all night during Super Bowl LV thanks to a Tampa Bay pass rush that pressured him on 29 of his 56 dropbacks (51.7%) in the pocket. (Tom Brady was only pressured on four of 30 dropbacks.)
Mahomes, who was pressured more than any other quarterback in Super Bowl history according to ESPN, spent most of his night during Kansas City’s 31-9 loss to the Buccaneers running around to buy himself time, scrambling for more than a quarter-mile (497 yards) during his dropbacks.
All of that scrambling didn’t do much good as the 25-year-old quarterback completed just 4-of-15 passes for 28 yards when throwing outside of the tackle box. He also had two interceptions while throwing out of the box, as well as two of the prettiest incompletions that you’ll ever see.
With the Chiefs desperate for points on a third-down play early in the fourth quarter, Mahomes rolled out to his left, rolled backward, then back to his right before throwing a desperate heave to the end zone while being dragged to the ground. Though Byron Pringle wasn’t able to catch the pass, that Mahomes was even able to get it away and give his receiver a chance to make a play was amazing.
Then, on the very next play, Mahomes scrambled to his right while trying to avoid a sack and uncorked a sidearm dart to Darrel Williams as he was being tackled that hit the second-string running back in the facemask and fell incomplete.
The throws themselves are the stuff of legend, but it was all for naught as Mahomes finished 26-of-49 for 270 yards and no touchdowns. It was the star QB’s first double-digit loss in the NFL and the first time since at least high school that his team failed to score a touchdown in a game he started.
“They were the better team today,” Mahomes said after the loss. “They beat us pretty good, the worst I think I’ve been beaten in a long time. I wasn’t getting the ball out on time. The receivers were running routes not exactly where I thought they were going to be at. The offensive line, they were good sometimes and sometimes they let guys through. When you play a good defense like that, you’ve got to be on the same page as an offense, and we weren’t today and that’s why we played so bad. They were just better than us.”
It was a forgettable game for Mahomes, but those throws are worth remembering — even though they fell incomplete.
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