Today in Sports
  • Home
  • Featured News
  • Football
  • Basketball
  • Baseball
  • More
    • Rugby
    • Golf
    • Boxing
    • Soccer
    • NBA
    • Racing
    • Cricket
  • DMCA
  • Disclaimer
  • Cookie Privacy Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Contact us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Featured News
  • Football
  • Basketball
  • Baseball
  • More
    • Rugby
    • Golf
    • Boxing
    • Soccer
    • NBA
    • Racing
    • Cricket
No Result
View All Result
Today in Sports
No Result
View All Result

Patrick Mahomes, the Super Bowl’s final boss who evolved towards greatness | Patrick Mahomes

February 7, 2025
in NFL
0
Home NFL
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


You might also like

Justin Fields already sensing his breakout with Jets’ offense

Panthers excited about what Tetairoa McMillan brings to offense

Chiefs News: Rashee Rice has no limitations at team OTAs

Patrick Mahomes is the final boss. Somehow, some way, it always comes down to him. From the moment he became the Kansas City Chiefs’ starting quarterback in 2018 he has turned the NFL into a video game of sorts, waiting at the highest levels to knock off all challengers. The longer he looms at the top, the more he seems like a glitch.

On Sunday, the Chiefs will face the Philadelphia Eagles with football immortality at stake. With a victory, Kansas City would become the first team to win three Super Bowls in a row. The championship run started with the Chiefs beating the Eagles two years ago in Super Bowl LVII.

As much as Philadelphia’s size advantages on the offensive and defensive lines and the addition of game-breaking running back Saquon Barkley make them look like the better overall team heading into the rematch, the mere fact that the Chiefs have Mahomes and the Eagles don’t is why you’d sooner trust a cat to babysit a goldfish than bet against Mahomes. “If it’s a one-score game, I’m taking Patrick Mahomes any time because he’s just got that championship DNA,” Tom Brady said earlier this season.

Consider that source for a moment: Brady, by consensus the greatest quarterback of all time, won a record seven championships while playing for the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Two of those came at Mahomes’s expense – in the 2018 season, when Brady’s Patriots beat the Chiefs in the AFC championship in Mahomes’s first year as the Chiefs’ starting quarterback; and two years later, when the Bucs beat the Chiefs on home soil in the Super Bowl itself. Each time, Mahomes gave Kansas City a fighting chance just by having the ball in hands. It’s only Brady’s good luck that he caught him early in his career.

Sunday will mark Mahomes’s fifth Super Bowl appearance. He’s already won the game three times and been voted the most valuable player in each victory. What’s more, he hasn’t even turned 30. Between those trophies and his staggering overall win totals and passing statistics, Mahomes would probably make it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame if he retired on Monday. A third straight championship – something Brady never achieved – would make it a moot point.

In the early stages of his career, Brady was the underdog, the “puny” (to league talent evaluators anyway) late-round draft choice who was thrust into duty after a freak injury to New England’s starter Drew Bledsoe and kept on rising to meet the moment. His dink-and-dunk pocket passing style conformed to the geometry of the game. He had a great partner to weather the ebbs and flows in Bill Belichick, the mastermind coach who guided his every step (until their breakup following the 2019 season, after 20 years together).

Mahomes? He’s the villain lurking inside the fortress, ready to knock his challengers back to square one. He’s slippery, spiky and can fire a ball just about every way imaginable. Where Brady had to contend with Peyton Manning for years, Mahomes holds back one of the best generation of quarterbacks the game has seen. The Baltimore Ravens’ Lamar Jackson, a two-time league MVP, has only beaten Mahomes once. Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, this year’s NFL MVP, fell to Kansas City in last month’s AFC championship, marking the third time in four seasons that Mahomes has topped him in the playoffs.

Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts played the game of his life when the Eagles faced the Chiefs in the Super Bowl two years ago only to wind up losing after Mahomes drained all the time off the clock. (“He made the plays when they mattered most,” Hurts said after the game. “That’s what the great ones do.”) The only top-level quarterback to hold a head-to-head edge over Mahomes is Joe Burrow, most notably in a victory in the 2022 AFC championship game – but that boast only goes so far when you play for the bungling Cincinnati Bengals.

In the days leading up to games Mahomes goes through a metamorphosis – from mild-mannered father of three to ruthless “creature” with “a look in his eye that normal people don’t have,” Chiefs’ offensive coordinator, Matt Nagy, recently told the Athletic. That crunch-time creature brings out the sweat like Michael Jordan trailing in the fourth quarter or Novak Djokovic with his back against the wall in a five-setter: you know it’s a matter of time before he pulls the rabbit out of the hat. But the truly impressive thing about Mahomes is how much he has evolved as a threat. In his early seasons in Kansas City, he piled up the passing yards while chucking deep balls to star receivers Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce, and otherwise dazzling defenses with no-look throws and tosses with his weaker left hand.

But with Hill long gone to the Miami Dolphins and Kelce past his peak, Mahomes has become less of a showman in the pocket, dinking and dunking defenses into a lull before catching them by surprise and taking off running.

One drive in this season’s AFC championship game exemplified the new version of Mahomes. With the Chiefs trailing the Bills 22-21 in the fourth quarter, he threw a short pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster that went for 29 yards, ran the ball in for a 10-yard score and then found Justin Watson for a two-point conversion – flipping a one-point deficit into a seven-point advantage in less than five minutes. That’s Mahomes: he doesn’t beat you with huge plays any more. He kills with a thousand cuts.

skip past newsletter promotion

Sign up to Soccer with Jonathan Wilson

Jonathan Wilson brings expert analysis on the biggest stories from European soccer

Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

after newsletter promotion

The more he dominates with methodicalness, the harder it is not to think there’s something wrong with the game of football because who gets to be this good? Of course, there are some who believe he gets help. This season opened with Kansas City beating Baltimore after a review of the winning touchdown confirmed that a Ravens receiver’s toe was out of bounds – a lucky break for Mahomes. Rival fans accuse game officials of treating him with kid gloves, even when he might exploit the very rules that were designed to protect him. They say he’s too big to fail because he has Taylor Swift and now Donald Trump on side and history within his grasp.

Typically, it takes years before a superlative talent steps into their greatness. But Mahomes has been great from the off. With a third straight Super Bowl title in possession, Mahomes wouldn’t just go down as sport’s ultimate final boss. He would leave you thinking the game may be impossible to beat.



Source link

Tags: bossBowlsEvolvedfinalgreatnessMahomesPatrickSuper
Share30Tweet19

Recommended For You

Justin Fields already sensing his breakout with Jets’ offense

by TODAY IN SPORTS
May 30, 2025
0
Justin Fields already sensing his breakout with Jets’ offense

Justin Fields is entering his fifth season in the NFL, and he believes he is ready to break out. Fields, who was a disappointment in Chicago and got...

Read more

Panthers excited about what Tetairoa McMillan brings to offense

by TODAY IN SPORTS
May 29, 2025
0
Panthers excited about what Tetairoa McMillan brings to offense

David NewtonMay 29, 2025, 06:00 AM ETCloseDavid Newton is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Carolina Panthers. Newton began covering Carolina in 1995 and came to...

Read more

Chiefs News: Rashee Rice has no limitations at team OTAs

by TODAY IN SPORTS
May 29, 2025
0
Chiefs News: Rashee Rice has no limitations at team OTAs

During Thursday’s media viewing of Day 3 of voluntary organized team activities (OTAs), Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice was one of six absentees — but that...

Read more

Jonnu Smith contract demands cause Dolphins to look for trade partners

by TODAY IN SPORTS
May 29, 2025
0
Jonnu Smith contract demands cause Dolphins to look for trade partners

If you want to be successful in the NFL, you usually want to keep your best players. At the same time, off-the-field factors like money can end up...

Read more

Seattle Seahawks announce signing of undrafted free agent DT from Miami

by TODAY IN SPORTS
May 29, 2025
0
Seattle Seahawks announce signing of undrafted free agent DT from Miami

The heart of free agency and the 2025 NFL Draft are in the rear view mirror, with the end of the offseason program quickly approaching. That means the...

Read more
Next Post
Super Bowl picks: Experts predict Chiefs-Eagles score, MVP

Super Bowl picks: Experts predict Chiefs-Eagles score, MVP

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related News

UFC declined Anthony Smith’s request to do Power Slap

UFC declined Anthony Smith’s request to do Power Slap

January 23, 2025
I could have played 300 games for LFC but injury held me back

I could have played 300 games for LFC but injury held me back

April 3, 2025
Bitesize Prediction: Sydney FC vs Perth Glory – 08/01/25

Bitesize Prediction: Sydney FC vs Perth Glory – 08/01/25

January 7, 2025

Browse by Category

  • Athletics
  • Baseball
  • Basketball
  • Boxing
  • Cricket
  • Football
  • Golf
  • MMA
  • NBA
  • NFL
  • Racing
  • Rugby
  • Soccer
  • Tennis
Today in Sports

Get the Latest Sports News and Updates on TodayInSports.net. Soccer News, Basketball News, Baseball News, Golf News, Boxing News and More!

CATEGORIES

  • Athletics
  • Baseball
  • Basketball
  • Boxing
  • Cricket
  • Football
  • Golf
  • MMA
  • NBA
  • NFL
  • Racing
  • Rugby
  • Soccer
  • Tennis

Recent News

  • Saudi clubs circle for Diaz and Nunez as transfer window heats up
  • Lucas Chevalier transfer eyed by Man United and Aston Villa
  • Former Man United defender Sergio Reguilon to be released by Tottenham Hotspur – Man United News And Transfer News
  • Contact us
  • Cookie Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • DMCA
  • Get the Latest Sports News and Updates on TodayInSports.net.
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions

Copyright © 2024 Today in Sports.
Today in Sports is not responsible for the content of external sites.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Featured News
  • Football
  • Basketball
  • Baseball
  • More
    • Rugby
    • Golf
    • Boxing
    • Soccer
    • NBA
    • Racing
    • Cricket

Copyright © 2024 Today in Sports.
Today in Sports is not responsible for the content of external sites.