Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes might have a new nickname after the divisional-round playoff win against the Buffalo Bills.
With 13 seconds remaining and a three-point Buffalo lead, Kansas City’s chances of tying the game up looked extraordinarily slim. Before Mahomes took the field at his own 25-yard line, Chiefs HC Andy Reid imparted some wisdom to his star quarterback.
“When it’s grim, be the grim reaper and go get it,” Reid said to Mahomes
What happened next would lead to one of the most exciting postseason finishes in NFL history. Mahomes hit Tyreek Hill for a 19-yard reception and called a timeout. The Bills took a look at what K.C. came out in on the following play and took a timeout. Mahomes would then find Travis Kelce for a 25-yard reception. They’d call a timeout with just three seconds remaining. That was good enough to get into Harrison Butker’s field goal range.
In the totality of those 13 seconds, Mahomes became the ‘grim reaper’ for the Bills’ playoff hopes.
“So, he did that,” Reid said of Mahomes. “He made everyone around him better, which he is great at. He just does it effortlessly. When it gets tough, he’s going to be there battling and players appreciate that.”
Just as Mahomes makes all the players around him better, Reid’s comments like the one that he made to Mahomes also make the players better.
“Yeah, I mean, (Andy Reid) shoots us confidence,” Mahomes explained. “Everybody on this team, he keeps bringing you confidence. Week in and week out, every single day. That’s what he said to me and he talked to everybody. He said, ‘Hey, we’re going to get in field goal range. We’re going to get points.’ I mean, he truly believes in it. When your coach believes in you that much, it gives you the belief to go out there and do it and execute it. That’s what we did today.”
This mutual belief in one another has long been something the Chiefs have leaned on, even dating back to their improbable 2019 playoff run. That confidence in one another speaks to the culture that Reid has created in Kansas City.
While the crowd at Arrowhead Stadium may have been stunned, never did Mahomes doubt that they were going to tie up the game. He exuded complete confidence and kept telling his teammates, “We’re going to go get in field goal range.”
“That’s all we could do at that moment was find a way to get in field goal range,” Mahomes said. “And we had that belief — we had a belief that we were going to do it. Take it back to the year we lost the AFC championship game we got in field goal range in like 18 seconds or something like that. You have to have that belief.”
Not only did the Chiefs have that belief, but they went out and executed at a high level to put themselves in Butker’s field goal range. After the play to Hill, Mahomes said the timeout by Buffalo gave the team a look at what the Bills were doing. Kelce essentially called his own number on his 25-yard reception and the rest is history.
“If you’re not going to go down fighting, then you don’t deserve to be here,” Mahomes said. “We knew that if we could just give ourselves a chance to get in (Harrison) Butker’s field goal range, he was going to knock it in. And he did.”
