‘You always fear the worst’: Why even Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes was scared Monday night

The play unfurled like yet another uncanny Patrick Mahomes moment, another snapshot of how he makes quarterbacking his own form of jazz.

Here he was, again defying conventional boundaries and angles and creating space to flip the ball to Samaje Perine for a 7-yard touchdown pass worthy of celebration.

But any revelry was muted after the fourth-quarter play that enabled the host Chiefs to tie Tampa Bay 17-17 on the way to a 30-24 overtime win.

Because down went Mahomes, with an ever-ominous non-contact injury incurred just before he let go of the ball, after he abruptly changed his mind about running the ball.

And if you felt a shiver go through your body or were nauseated or otherwise deeply distressed by the sight, you weren’t alone.

Even Mahomes, a virtual Terminator who has essentially shrugged off would-be debilitating injuries, was scared because of the typical implications — an Achilles’ or ACL injury among them — when an injury happens that way.

For once, it seemed you could see the anguish in his eyes as he was being helped along the sideline.

“You don’t know exactly what happened,” he said. “You get that sharp pain (and), you always fear the worst.”

So he stayed down on the Tampa Bay sideline a moment, taking a breath and trying to pause — to calm himself down — as he was being attended to and helped up.

And then he started to realize, or at least tell himself, that what was later called a rolled ankle — more precise follow-ups are pending — “wasn’t as bad as it looked, or felt.”

So much so that he wanted to run off the field before being strongly advised to take it slow.

Just the same, coach Andy Reid told backup quarterback Carson Wentz to warm up and “be ready” as Mahomes was taken into the injury tent — a sanctum, as Reid called it, where even the coach is not allowed.

By the time Mahomes emerged from the tent and Reid told him he was out of the game, well, let’s just say Mahomes persuaded him otherwise.

“He about wanted to fight me,” Reid said, smiling but not necessarily joking.

Asked about his version of that, Mahomes said he thought Reid was joking and said, “Come on, we’re not doing this again” — a reference to past futile efforts of Reid’s.

What happened next was more of the stuff of legend — further affirmation of the most fundamental lessons of the Mahomes Era.

Not only are the Chiefs never out of it, underscored by their franchise record 14th straight win as they seek a Super Bowl threepeat.

But Mahomes himself is a different kind of indomitable.

That’s something we first learned in 2019 when he missed only two starts after what should have been a debilitating dislocated kneecap injury, and it’s something we’ve seen over and over since — including with how he handled a hideous ankle injury in the 2022 postseason and, particularly, in the Super Bowl victory over the Eagles.

In his latest episode of I Don’t Believe What I Just Saw, Mahomes returned to lead a 15-play, 78-yard scoring drive. The march consumed 8 minutes, 26 seconds and culminated in the go-ahead touchdown: Mahomes’ 5-yard TD pass to DeAndre Hopkins.

And then he went five of five for 52 yards in overtime to pave the way to Kareem Hunt’s game-winning 2-yard touchdown run.

As much as this was about Mahomes’ true grit, though, it was about something else in his mindset, too.

Relieved as he might have been that the injury wasn’t as devastating as it initially felt or appeared, Mahomes nonetheless was in great pain. When I asked him how he’d describe it, he laughed and said “just not good” would be the best way to put it.

Perhaps he has learned to navigate such pain because he’s dealt with it before — albeit worse, he reckons, two seasons ago.

“I know, in a sense, it hurts you,” he said. “I mean, obviously it hurts … But sometimes it almost settles me down, especially in the pocket, where I can’t use my mobility.”

Earlier in the game on Monday, he said, he felt like he was running into sacks (four altogether).

Being restricted, he said, made him less mobile but also more prone to sitting in the pocket, going through his reads and getting the ball to “the right guy,” as he put it.

So, to recap, in Mahomes’ mind he figured not simply that he wouldn’t let the injury hold him back, but also that he somehow could put it to helpful use.

Presto, he completed 34 of 44 passes for a season-best 116.8 quarterback rating and three touchdowns — also a first this season.

After another dire scenario, the sort the Chiefs and Mahomes have navigated over and over these last few years, both through game situations and the Mahomes moments that make you shudder.

“It’s ridiculous,” Reid said, “how he can come back from those things.”

And somehow completely what we’ve come to expect.