The Los Angeles Rams and Kansas City Chiefs treated football fans to one of the greatest NFL games of all time on Monday night, and one player on the winning side felt that the inexperience of Patrick Mahomes was a big factor down the stretch.
After the Rams took a 54-51 lead late in the fourth quarter, Kansas City got the ball back twice with less than two minutes remaining and chances to either tie the score or take the lead. Both drives ended on Mahomes interceptions, and Rams defensive end Dante Fowler said he sensed that the second-year quarterback was “rattled.”
Dante Fowler on Pat Mahomes: "Yeah, I say toward the end, like the last 5 minutes of the game, I feel like he was a little rattled. … Him being, I’ll say a rookie, his first year in situations like that, it’s kind of hard. We put the pressure on him and we did a good job.”
— Greg Beacham (@gregbeacham) November 20, 2018
Mahomes was pressing to try to make plays on both of his fourth-quarter picks, so it’s hard to say whether he was nervous or simply had nowhere to go with the ball. Either way, the turnovers ended up being big in a game that featured more than 100 points.
Mahomes began the season by throwing 14 touchdowns compared to no interceptions through the first four games, but he has turned the ball over plenty since. Still, his 10 interceptions on the year aren’t that bad considering he has a whopping 37 touchdown passes. The former first-round pick is still very much an MVP candidate, and the six touchdown passes he threw on Monday will be enough to win almost every other week.
