of pressure on them, now you just put it on me. Okay.
It's
it's funny because the Chargers and Chiefs they play very
competitive games but they always seem to end exactly
the same way. And I mean, you pointed it out in your column
probably better than anyone
that you run the exact same play. Basically
that you use to beat the Chargers last year at. So fi
Stadium last year, it's an overtime. This This year it's
at the end of regulation and it's the same outcome. Travis
Kelce
running down the field
getting into the end zone
and being very, very excited. It's
it's one of those things where for the Chargers it's just
always something. And for the Chiefs and I'll, for all of
the bellyaching we did in the offseason over, man. The Chiefs
don't have Tyree kill anymore. Oh my gosh, look at this arms
race with the Broncos, they
get Russell Wilson and then the Raiders are.
Eating more guys. And then oh man the Chargers loading up.
Where are we? The AFC West is pretty much over by
Thanksgiving.
Same as it ever was. And
I'll tell you the one thing about that game miles and
what really interests me
Is
how no matter what you do to Kansas City,
you cannot put a stake through their heart,
you can't do it.
And when I talk to Kelsey, after the game, one of
the things that really interested me, I said to him,
hey, you know, with all these new receivers you have this
year, you got five new guys,
you know, in your offense that
you're trying to get up to speed.
I said, what in your opinion first half of the Season or so,
what's been the key? And he goes Patrick Mahomes, he's not
going to let us fail
and
I think
Once you get a guy like that
on your team in your organization, it seeps into
everything.
The Patrick Mahomes ethos. Hey listen. We got all these new
guys. Okay, I'm going to bring him to Texas
for two weeks in the offseason and we're going to do
everything together. Okay, we get to training camp,
I am going to take them all under my wing everyday. We're
going to spend An hour longer than everybody else just
studying making sure we're on our p's and q's blah, blah,
blah, blah blah. And I find
right now every year miles isn't it? The last two or three
years every year since Mahomes one, that mvp, three years ago.
Don't you think that every year we're saying okay you know
Mahomes is good but hey Joshua Allen is is really good and and
wow,
you know, Lamar Jackson he
he's good and you know all these guys,
I don't know, I'm
the more I watch football,
the more I want a guy
who doesn't subject himself to a lot of punishment and he
doesn't is very mobile,
which he is,
is accurate which he is, and just has that Winners, ethos
about him,
the more I watch Patrick
Holmes the more I say is the best player in football,
I'm not even sure it's that close.
All right. Look I agree with you man. I really do and I one
of the things that just sticks with me
from being in those press conferences last night
is when Patrick Mahomes was asked, you know, what was
the feeling going into the Huddle because, you know, this is
a sportswriter, I we always like to capture that, oh, Patrick
Mahomes had the look in his eye or whatever it happens to be
right. But but for Mahomes. He said
there wasn't really any of that. It was just okay. We got
in the hole and were like, all right, let's go do it. We know
how to do this. You know, we've been in these situations before
we've practiced these situations, we run through this
kind of thing all the time
in training camp during the practice week.
So that we know when we're down by four and we've got two
minutes or less in the game, how do we do this? And so it
doesn't matter if you've got young guys in their
inexperience guys in there,
you know, it doesn't, it feels long as
A Kelsey's in there and he's one-on-one. That's the guy that
Patrick Holmes is gonna go to. And I love it because I also am
a kid from the suburbs of Cleveland. So any time he does
something good, I feel like it's doing something for me
too,
but it's just one of those things where you got Kansas
City in the way that they play, and I think you're right,
Patrick Mahomes is very determined to be one of
the best to ever play the game. And you can see that in the way
that
not just conducts himself during the season
but on the off season, when he does bring all those Guys, to
Texas. And he says, let's do this together. I'm gonna get
you guys up. We're going to all be comfortable, very. We're all
going to be very comfortable together, or even when
kaduri is Tony comes in, on the bye week.
And the first person that they put up a picture of with could
areas Tony on the chief social media account is Patrick homes
because he's in that building greeting, the new receiver,
those little things matter a lot
a lot and it's part of why Mahomes in the Chiefs are so great.
I'll say one other thing about Mahomes that I find. So
interesting right now, it's that
You know, when Canaria Stony was a New York Giant,
they had a winning record, I think he got traded and they
were like 5 and 2 or something like that. They were whatever
they had. A good record for into maybe. I don't know,
but
he was unhappy. He was a malcontent.
They didn't like him. He didn't like them and but he goes to
Kansas City
and it's like, oh man, I get to play with Mahomes. I'm
Going to get in line, I'm going to do this and that is a very
very big thing if you walk into a place and there's Travis
Kelce and Patrick Mahomes it's like walking into New England
when they got Rob Gronkowski and Tom Brady,
you know, back in you know, three, four years ago.
So I think that has a lot to do with it.
One specific thing about that game, that interested me.
Is that
Miles, didn't you think?
When it finally, when push came to shove, it came down to
the stretch game down to the,
you know, late stretch of the game
that
when Kansas City got the ball with whatever 90 seconds left,
or whatever. It was, I mean,
it was almost like it wasn't even dramatic particularly.
I mean I just knew they were going to win the game.
Was
I it's almost like, you know, you're doing a hard crossword
puzzle
and if you turn over the page,
there are the answers
and, you know, so you know how easy it is to cheat?
And, you know, that at any point, you can turn over
the page. Well, when I'm watching that game last night,
as we record this on Monday afternoon, I'm just thinking of
myself.
It's
I know what's going to happen. It's almost it almost like
ruins the suspense. But what are you sitting there in
the stadium thinking at that point?
I thought that at
a certain point, you think, well, the Chargers have got to
get one, right? And it's not that I didn't think that
the Chiefs could go down the field and score, of course they can.
But and of Khalil Mac is over there. Now
he's supposed to be better,
he supposed to make them better.
And, you know, you just think Well, maybe Mahomes will make
a mistake. Maybe the fact that
a lot of guys are missing is going to really affect them.
Juju Smith Schuster wasn't there and you know, it could
Aries Tony had gone out by that point with the hamstring
tightness it collided was a layered suffered a high ankle
sprain. So it's
you thinking okay maybe
some of that inexperience is actually going to affect them
at a survey and but the answer is, of course not because
I think they got the ball left with something about like one
minute 46 seconds
they scored in there was 31.
Left on the clock. I mean, they left perhaps? Yeah, too much
time for Justin Herbert. You think if you got 31 seconds in
multiple timeouts and you're starting at your own 25-yard
line,
kind of arm he has
and right kind of
weird weapons that he has. I mean, I know that Mike Williams
have been gone for it by that time, but he still got Keenan,
Allen out there Palmer's, a good receiver, you can get
the ball down the field, it just didn't happen. You know, when
push comes to shove the Chiefs, know how to execute
in those most critical moments.
And while Justin Herbert did convert third and 18 and he got
the ball into the end zone, as pressure was coming into his
face. When it came down to it, at the end of the game, he
didn't make the plays.