The Chiefs were faced with a challenging decision at halftime Saturday against the Jaguars: send an injured Patrick Mahomes back onto the field or turn to the healthy backup.
Andy Reid decided to send Mahomes back onto the field to start the second half after he missed the final Chiefs drive before halftime. The decision paid off as Mahomes led Kansas City to 10 second-half points to avoid the upset and advance to the franchise’s fifth consecutive AFC championship game appearance.
“It was hard getting him out of the game, first of all,” Reid said. “He wanted to fight and so we got him out, went to the X-ray, got it X-rayed, looked at it, taped. He came back and he said he felt good enough to be protected where he’s not going to get hurt, that’s obviously the primary thing. And he felt like his mobility was good enough to do that.”
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Mahomes injured his ankle during the first quarter and had to get taped up on the sideline. While on the sideline, he was visibly frustrated as he was told by the team to head to the locker room to be evaluated, which caused him to miss the remainder of the first half. In his place, Chad Henne led the Chiefs on a 98-yard scoring drive to put Kansas City up 17-7.
The star quarterback said after the game that he didn’t want to leave the contest and receive X-rays, saying that he tried to convince the team to push the X-rays off until halftime. He said Reid made him go back to the locker room in order to have any shot at returning.
“He said, ‘We’re not putting you back in, so you might as well go get the X-ray and if it’s negative or whatever, I’ll put you back in,'” Mahomes recounted. “I ran back there, got the X-ray and was able to finish the game.”
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Reid joked that the conversation with Mahomes was like trying to get one of the reporters in the press conference “not to ask a question.”
“He’s a tough kid, and so he wanted to be in there, he wanted to be competing and that’s you know it’s a tribute to him and his competitiveness,” Reid said. “However, you’ve got to make sure he’s OK, physically OK, where he can protect himself. And if he can’t, then he can’t play. You have to go to the next guy. But he’s a tough nut. And he’s very, I tell you, he’s competitive. He’s very, very competitive.”
Reid said that the team did a few things on the sideline to evaluate him before allowing him to return to the game.
“It was a short leash,” Reid said. “If I felt like he wasn’t able to handle it, he would have been out and back in (would have been) Henne.”
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Mahomes was able to finish off the win for Kansas City. He ended his afternoon having completed 22 of 30 passes for 195 yards and two touchdowns, while rushing three times for 8 yards. Now that the Chiefs are back in the AFC championship game, the question will quickly turn to just how his injury impacts the team as it looks to reach the Super Bowl for the first time since 2021.
