By Ossian Shine
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Patrick Mahomes had arrived in New Orleans with his eyes firmly fixed on history. The creative genius of the NFL was bidding to drive his Kansas City Chiefs to an unprecedented third consecutive Super Bowl.
But after a torrid night in the Superdome, he was left coming to terms with a bruising defeat at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles and vowing to use this most painful of losses to fuel future triumph.
Instead of being the architect of a famous victory, Mahomes found himself smothered by an immense Eagles defence and stifled throughout.
The 40-22 scoreline greatly flattered the Chiefs – those scores coming when the game was finished as a contest. Afterwards, in defeat as in victory, Mahomes did not shirk for a second.
Last year’s MVP, the 29-year-old quarterback said he took full responsibility for the bayou blowout.
“I threw two interceptions in their end, I mean, I threw a pick six, and I threw a pick that they returned to the five-yard line, and they scored immediately after. So, you give the team 14 points, especially a really good football team, a Super Bowl football team, and not a lot of good things happen,” he told reporters huddled around him in the bowels of the cavernous stadium.
BAYOU BLOWOUT
“That’s why I take ownership of this loss more than probably any loss in my entire career, because I put us in a bad spot there.
“Even though we put up some stats at the end of the game, those stats didn’t really matter because we kind of lost the momentum for this entire team, and so I have to be better at not turning over. Whenever it’s not going my way, trust in my defense, trust in the rest of my team to get those stops until I can figure out what we need to do as an offense.”
Nobody could have predicted the one-sided nature of this championship game, and while red-clad fans throughout the stadium looked stunned as the Eagles racked up score after score, Mahomes insisted he had kept the faith.
“I mean, we were confident until the very end,” he said. “I mean, there’s been crazy things that’s happened in the NFL. But all you can do is take it play by play and give everything you have. And I’m proud of our guys for how they did that in the face of adversity.
“A lot of teams probably would have just folded and gave up. We just kept fighting to the very end and obviously it didn’t go our way. And that’ll be something that we’ll look back on for the rest of our careers. But I’m proud of the fight those guys had.
Mahomes said the Eagles played better than the Chiefs in all aspects of the game. “And when I compile it with mistakes, then it turns into a big lead and we end up getting a blowout,” he said. “And so, like I said, I’m just proud of the guys and how they competed.
“And it was something that we’ll think about for the rest of our careers and hopefully motivate us to be even better.”
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