Patrick Mahomes completed 43 passes on #SundayNightFootball, while Malik Willis completed only 5.
That gap of 38 completions is the largest in a game in the Super Bowl era, breaking the previous record of 36 from the 59-0 Patriots win over the Titans in Week 6, 2009.
— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) November 7, 2022
Why the Chiefs won
The Chiefs desperately needed some semblance of a running game and they simply weren’t getting it from their stable of backs as Isiah Pacheco, Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Jerick McKinnon combined for just 14 rushing yards on 12 carries. Because of that inefficiency on the ground, Tennessee was willing to sit back in coverage and bottling things up in the secondary. So, Patrick Mahomes had to take matter into his own hands legs. He not only rushed for a team-high 63 yards, but those gains on the ground were the difference between the Chiefs winning and losing this game.
On the fourth-quarter touchdown drive alone, Mahomes had three notable scrambles that converted a third-and-17, scored the game-tying touchdown, and the two-point conversion. While those rushes will garner most of the headlines, Mahomes also used his legs to extend plays and set up throws down the field. In overtime, he rolled out on a third-and-inches play and completed a jaw-dropping 27-yard pass to Noah Gray that put them deep into Tennessee territory to set up the go-ahead field goal.
Defensively, the Chiefs did a strong job slowing down Tennessee’s biggest weapon on offense: Derrick Henry. After a first half where he rushed for 92 yards and two touchdowns, K.C. held Henry to 23 yards rushing on eight carries over the course of the second half and overtime.
B – Chiefs
The Chiefs were able to avoid an upset on Sunday night, but It took a career day from Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes turned up his magic in the fourth quarter and it’s a good thing he did, because he provided nearly every yard of offense for the Chiefs in this game (Only 14 of Kansas City’s 499 total yards didn’t involve Mahomes). Mahomes threw a career-high 68 passes, which was just two off the NFL single-game record. He also threw for 446 yards, which was the third-highest total of his career. Mahomes added a career-high 63 yards on the ground, including 14 that came on a TD with just 2:56 left (He also scored the game-tying two-point conversion). Mahomes didn’t have his best night, but he was at his best when he had to be and that’s why Kansas City won. Mahomes completed passes to 11 different receivers, including Travis Kelce and JuJu Smith-Schuster, who both caught 10 passes. It was a huge win for a Chiefs team that’s now tied with the Bills for the best record in the AFC
Derrick Henry shook every defensive player’s hand thanking them fir their effort after the game. #Titans pic.twitter.com/RMw0eqdcKt
— TURRON DAVENPORT (@TDavenport_NFL) November 7, 2022
“We didn’t execute,” Henry said. “They played better than we did in the second half.”
Henry was held to 22 yards on seven carries in the second half. Willis was 2 of 9 for minus-2 yards through the air. And the Titans had 38 yards total offense and one first down over the final 30 minutes of regulation.
“There are no moral victories,” Vrabel said. “We came here to win. That’s all we were thinking about doing. Yeah, there’s more that I could do, more that the coaches could do and the players.”
6) Patrick Mahomes makes another second-half comeback in historic game
Mahomes had 446 pass yards and a touchdown, along with 63 rush yards and a touchdown in the Chiefs’ 20-17 overtime win over the Titans. Mahomes is the first player in the Super Bowl era to record at least 400 yards and a touchdown passing and 60 yards and a touchdown rushing in the same game.
Mahomes won his fifth consecutive game when trailing at halftime, which is the second such win streak of his career. Peyton Manning is the only other player with two such streaks in his career since QB starts began to be tracked in 1950.
