Tom Brady loses battle against reigning Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes
The ‘Comeback Kid’ wasn’t able to get it done this time.
Despite scoring 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, Tom Brady and his Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost 27-24 to Patrick Mahomes‘ Kansas City Chiefs.
The Raymond James Stadium in Tampa saw a shootout between two of the premier quarterbacks in the NFL and fans were treated to a quarterback clinic from Mahomes, who threw for 462 yards, three touchdowns and finished with a passer rating of 124.7.
He passed to favorite wide receiver Tyreek Hill 13 times, which amounted to 269 of his passing yards and three touchdowns.
An explosive start saw 203 of those yards and two of those touchdowns coming in the first quarter, the second-most receiving yards by any player since 1991.
In contrast, Brady wasn’t firing on all cylinders. Three touchdowns, including two in the final quarter, is an impressive tally but it will always be difficult to win a game throwing two interceptions for the second game in a row.
Brady has now thrown seven interceptions in his last three games, bringing his season tally to 11.
He hasn’t thrown more than 11 interceptions in a season since 2011, and has never thrown more than 14 in a season.
“We battled back. Unfortunately, we left ourself a big deficit to start, got off to a slow start, couldn’t convert any third downs. [It was] just poor execution early and [we] get behind,” Brady said after the game.
“Players have got to do a better job; we’ve got to make the plays that are there. And certainly, when you play a good offense, offensively we’ve got to do our job and stay on the field, and keep them off the field.”
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Domination in Denver
Elsewhere on Sunday, the Denver Broncos played the New Orleans Saints without a single quarterback in their game-day roster.
They suffered a one-sided 31-3 blowout loss as a result, with last-minute replacement quarterback Kendall Hinton completing only one pass in the entire game.
On Saturday, all three of the Denver’s quarterbacks were identified as “high-risk Covid-19 close contacts” and were forced to undergo a five-day quarantine.
It meant the team went into the game with Hinton, a reserve team wide receiver who had played quarterback in college at Wake Forest.
Unfortunately for the Broncos, he made more passes to the opposition than to his teammates, as he completed out one pass in nine attempts during the game, but threw two interceptions.
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‘He did everything he could’
Broncos coach Vic Fangio didn’t hold it against Hinton, and instead took out his frustration on the absent quarterbacks.
“I was disappointed on a couple of levels, that our quarterbacks put us in this position, that our quarterbacks put the league in this position, we count on them to be the leaders of this team, so that’s disappointing,” he said after the game.
Fangio said the quarterback group had gathered at the team facility on Tuesday, their off-day, to watch a film.
As for Hinton, Fangio said: “He did everything he could. He was excited for it. We were excited for him. His teammates were excited for him. But that was a big, big ask.”
Saints coach Sean Payton was sympathetic to the Broncos, but made light of the situation, saying: “This is a challenging year. I felt bad for the cardboard fans. It is what it is.”
