In last week’s victory over the Giants, the Chiefs finally got a little offense going in the second half.
Patrick Mahomes connected with Tyquan Thornton on a 5-yard touchdown to cap an 11-play drive that began the second half. Then Mahomes hit Thornton again on a 33-yard downfield strike to set up Kareem Hunt’s 1-yard touchdown.
Through three weeks, the 2025 Chiefs are No. 17 in total yards and No. 21 in points scored — a far cry from the days when Mahomes seemed to fire the ball all over the field with ease as he won his two MVP awards.
But as Kansas City gets ready to play Baltimore on Sunday, Mahomes told reporters in his Wednesday press conference that the second-half performance against New York illustrated that the offense is coming together.
“We cleaned up our execution,” Mahomes said, via transcript from the team. “I got the ball out, made the right decisions, and the right throws. I think that’s the most important thing, just making the throws, making the throws whenever they are there. Getting the ball out of my hand and letting guys make plays happen. I did that in the second half, and the only drive that we didn’t score was when I missed Tyquan.
“It just proves that if you make the throws, that the offense can be productive and can have the progress that we want. I just gotta go out and make the plays happen.”
In some ways, that’s still a lot to ask of Mahomes — who has been playing without his top two wide receivers effectively for each of the first three games. Xavier Worthy is making progress in his return from a shoulder injury, and Rashee Rice has returned to the building to continue his suspension, though he may not yet practice.
Nevertheless, Mahomes, head coach Andy Reid, and the rest of the Chiefs have to use the weapons they have available to try and beat Baltimore — and avoid a 1-3 beginning to the season.
“For us, we got to start faster,” Mahomes said. “Every game we’ve kind of said that, and we haven’t really got to do that. We were moving the ball early in the game last week, but we were settling with field goals, and when you play teams that are really good and have dynamic quarterbacks like the Ravens do, you got to turn those into touchdowns. That will not only put pressure on them, but it unleashes ‘Spags’ [DC Steve Spagnuolo] to be able to do what he wants to do, and you always see when we get leads, he’s a great finisher. He’s a great closer of being able to give you different looks and stuff like that.
“We gotta take pressure off our defense and put pressure onto them by starting faster, and we can be better at that this week.”
