It was late in the first half, deep in Kansas City Chiefs territory, when Mahomes planted his left foot, rotated his hips and shot-putted a pass behind him that landed wide of Isiah Pacheco’s feet.
Andy Reid could have thrown a better pass. Taylor Swift could have thrown a better pass.
However, that wasn’t the point. The pass wasn’t just dreadful — it wasn’t a pass at all. The ball was loose, live and available for anyone to grab.
Though Mahomes is not the only NFL quarterback who would’ve grasped this in real time, he might be the only NFL quarterback who would have attacked that bouncing lateral the way he did. New York Giants linebacker Bobby Okereke scooped the fumble at the 10-yard line and figured he had a walk-in touchdown until he was drilled from the side by Mahomes, who ripped the ball from Okereke’s hands while knocking him to the ground.
Mahomes ended up flat on his belly on the 7-yard line, cradling the ball with both hands as if he were protecting a newborn child from a fierce winter wind. This was a lousy 6-6 game at the time, between two 0-2 teams, and the megastar quarterback sacrificed his body as if it were the closing minutes of the Super Bowl.
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