In Thursday night’s 34-20 Kansas City Cheifs’ victory over the Houston Texans, QB Patrick Mahomes continued his trend of dominating in September.
Former Texas Tech QB Patrick Mahomes isn’t one for slow starts. In fact, during his young NFL career, he’s shown a propensity for being at his best right out of the starting blocks as was the case once again in Thursday night’s 34-20 season-opening victory over the Houston Texans.
Completing 24-32 passes (75%) with three TDs and no picks, the reigning Super Bowl MVP helped his team kick off their world title defense with an easy victory on a night when the Kansas City Chiefs unveiled their Super Bowl LIV championship banner.
But what was a bit strange for Mahomes was the fact that he passed for just 211 yards on the evening. Averaging a modest 6.6 yards per attempt, he was 1.9 yards per pass below his career average. In fact, only twice has he had a lower yards per attempt average over the course of a game.
That seemed to be by design though as the Chiefs seemed content to get rid of the ball quickly in order to neutralize the dangerous pass rush of the Texans, which is spearheaded by future hall of fame defensive end J.J. Watt. That strategy worked as Houston managed just one sack on the night and that came on K.C.’s first drive.
So while Mahomes didn’t put up video game numbers like we’ve come to expect, he did continue his career-long trend of performing well in season openers. Thus far, he’s averaged 282 yards and a 68.6% completion rate in the three week-one starts that he’s made. What’s more, he’s thrown for 10 total TDs in those games.
According to ESPN.com, he became the first player in NFL history to throw for at least three TD passes and no picks in three-consecutive season openers. And that’s not surprising given how well he’s performed historically throughout the season’s first month.
The Chiefs’ official website reports that during his career, Mahomes is 8-0 with 26 passing touchdowns and zero interceptions in September. What’s more, the NFL research department Tweeted out that no player since 1950 has had more 3+ TD games (7) and 300+ yard games (6) in their career in September before throwing their first September pick.
Patrick Mahomes has not thrown an INT in Sept. in his career, but he has thrown for 3+ pass TD in 7 games, 300+ yds in 6 games (and counting) and won all 7 (and counting) of his career Sept. starts.
— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) September 11, 2020
Those are all the most by a player before his first INT in Sept. since 1950.
But while Mahomes is the biggest star in the game, he took a bit of a back seat on Thursday night to rookie RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire. Fresh off of helping LSU to a National Title in earlier this year, the shifty back totaled 138 yards and a TD on 25 carries. His effectiveness was yet another reason that Mahomes wasn’t asked to do all that much through the air.
In fact, the Cheifs ran the ball 34 times against the Texans while throwing the ball just 32 times. That’s one of the benefits of jumping out to a 24-7 lead by the end of the third quarter.
Next week, Mahomes will face another prominent Texas Tech football alum as the Chiefs travel to L.A. to face the Chargers and their head coach, Anthony Lynn, who played RB at Tech under Spike Dykes. And being as that game will be played in September, there’s no question which former Red Raider we will expect to come out on top.