Patrick Mahomes Has Something To Say About His Tough Super Bowl Loss
The Super Bowl showdown between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs was hyped to be an epic matchup, but ended up being spectacularly one-sided. In the end, Tom Brady was the one to hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy (his seventh to date) after dealing Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes the worst loss of his professional football career. According to CBS Sports, the Chiefs were held to just three field goals after Mahomes was unable to drive the ball into the end zone, and went on to lose to the Bucs, 31-9.
In so many ways, such a defeat seemed improbable for the Chiefs. The defending Super Bowl champs were riding high after another stellar season — they ended the 2020 regular season 14-2 — and prior to the big game, Mahomes had not lost by double digits since 2016. In fact, the Chiefs had never scored less than 13 points with Mahomes at the helm (per The Athletic), so it takes a pretty special defensive line to prevent him from executing the stellar plays we have come to expect. (Popular opinion: Tom Brady may have been named MVP, but the Bucs defense were the real stars of the show.) No matter how Mahomes looks at the game, it's a loss that will likely sting for a while. Here's what the Chiefs quarterback had to say at the post-game press conference.
Patrick Mahomes is taking the loss in stride
Lesser men might have moaned over questionable calls on the field (and there were plenty of those), but Patrick Mahomes gave the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lots of credit. "They were the better team today," he admitted, per ESPN. "They beat us pretty good, the worst I think I've been beaten in a long time ... They were just better than us." Even football newbies and casual viewers who tuned in for the commercials could likely see how Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs struggled early on and never found their mojo. "We weren't executing early, had a few miscues," Mahomes added. "Credit to them [the Bucs]. They played a heck of a game defensively and offensively to beat us."
It's a mature outlook to take, especially because Mahomes is only 25 years old! When analyzing the game, the starting quarterback did not place blame anywhere, but rather attributed the loss to being out of sync with his teammates. "I just think we weren't on the same page as an offense," he explained to ESPN. "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. ...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[ly]." Hey, everybody can relate to having an off day.
Patrick Mahomes is already looking ahead to the future
But in sports, just like in life, you have to get back up when you get knocked down. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers may have blown over the Kansas City Chiefs, but Mahomes is already dusting himself off as her prepares to try again next season. "Obviously it hurts right now," he explained to ESPN. "But we're going to continue to get better. We have a young group of guys that had a lot of success and we learned from that, but we've had a few failures and we have to learn from that."
Again, a refreshing outlook. So, what's next? Mahomes' future may be uncertain, but it's still looking bright, and he is determined not to let the tough loss define him. "We have to continue to get better going into next year and prepare ourselves to hopefully be in this game again," he added (via ESPN). "We knew we were going to go through times like this ... I think the best thing about it is the guys we have the leadership ability to be even better next year." Something tells us that this won't be the last time we see the star quarterback in the Super Bowl. Next time, he will be hungrier than ever to nab that win.
Patrick Mahomes has plenty of support in the meantime
While Patrick Mahomes is getting over the loss, he has some shoulders to lean on, courtesy of his fiancee, Brittany Matthews, his mom, and Chiefs head coach, Andy Reid. Shortly after the shocking loss, Matthews took to Twitter to praise her future hubby for giving the game his all. "Not how we wanted it to end, but 15 played his heart out and I'm always and forever proud of him in everything he does," she tweeted. "Now let's have a baby." (Yes, the two are expecting their first child together, a daughter, any day now!)
Mahomes has an equally big fan in his mom, who was upset with some of the controversial game penalties against the Chiefs and closed out the night with a tweet affirming her son, his team, and Chiefs fans everywhere. Beyond the women in Mahomes' life, Reid was also on hand to defend his player. "To the last snap, he [Mahomes] was trying to win the football game," the head coach stated in a post-game press conference. "And so, that should never be questioned." Sounds like these three definitely have number 15's back.