‘They Just Had a Spy On Me’: Patrick Mahomes Reveals How Bengals Defense Choked Him During AFC Championship Game

Patrick Mahomes had his nightmare come true in the AFC Championship Game against the Cincinnati Bengals. With an electrifying start, the 26-year-old quarterback led the Kansas City Chiefs to three back-to-back touchdowns. The Bengals, in reply, scored just one field goal. However, the Chiefs, who were leading the game, surprisingly couldn’t make the Super Bowl.

The Chiefs were leading with a 21-3 scoreboard. By the end of the first half, it looked as if the game was already finished, since Mahomes in his career, has never lost a game after gaining a 15 point lead. However, this game was an exception. The Bengals’ defense did not look the same after taking the field in the second half. They were all up for retaliation, and the fight was not over.

Mahomes saw a drastic decline in his performance in the second half since the Chiefs’ pocket started to crumble and the quarterback had no place to scramble. Patrick, in the first half of the game, threw for 18 passes in 21 attempts for 220 yards, three touchdowns, zero interceptions, and an exceptional 149.9 passer rating.

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However, in his second half, he totaled for eight passes in 18 attempts with zero touchdowns, a paltry 12.3 passer rating, and two interceptions. One of those interceptions came in the overtime, which resulted in the Bengals clinching the Super Bowl spot (27-24). It was as big a shock to the fans as it was a surprise to them at the start.

Patrick Mahomes on being denied to scramble by the Bengals defense

“They just had a spy on me for the most part, and I’ve usually done a great job of getting around that guy,” Patrick said in the press conference when asked about his degraded second-half performance. “But they had a good game plan. They were doing a lot of similar stuff in the first half we were just executing at a higher level.”

“And they stayed with it, they fought,” he added. “I mean that’s a good football team, but it takes a lot of fight to stay in a game whenever you’re down like that. But I gotta be better, when you’re up 21-3 at one point in the game you can’t lose it, I mean I’ll put that on myself.”

It has been for the first time that Patrick Mahomes has lost a playoff game to a quarterback other than Tom Brady. Not to mention that this was Joe Burrow’s first complete season as a starting QB, since he ended his debut season with an ACL injury in the 10th Week.

With that win, the Cincinnati Bengals have advanced to the Super Bowl where they will face the Los Angeles Rams in the SoFi Stadium. Who are you rooting for? Let us know in the comments below!

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