The Chiefs escaped MetLife Stadium with a win on Sunday night, but quarterback Patrick Mahomes certainly did not have his best performance.
The reigning MVP completed 18-of-30 passes for 203 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. He could have been picked off at least one more time as well.
The giveaways seemed like uncharacteristically bad throws from the QB, who said after the game that he was “just being greedy.”
“I just got to throw the ball away,” Mahomes said postgame, via Ricko Mendoza of ArrowheadPride.com. “They covered both plays well. But instead of just throwing the ball away, I tried to make perfect throws. … You just got to know when you can take those chances and at that time, at those points in the game, I can’t do that.”
Mahomes said he was expecting it to be a tough outing against a strong Jets defense, but he still has to be better with the football.
“I can’t turn it over and put that pressure on our defense,” Mahomes said. “But they stepped up for me. It’s football. It’s the NFL. Not everything’s going to be easy. You have to find a way to win in different ways, and I’ve learned that over my career.”
On Sunday night, that meant Mahomes had to convert a couple of key third downs with his legs — including at the end of the game. But even as it wasn’t the cleanest game, Kansas City found a way to get to 3-1.
“I’ve learned in my six or seven years you can win pretty, but you have to win ugly, too, in order to win Super Bowls,” Mahomes said. “For me, even though I hate it while it’s happening, I feel like it makes you better in the end if you win games like this where not everything is going perfect.
“We did that last year, and we’re going to try to do that again this year and then try to keep getting better so we’re playing our best football at the end of the season.”
The Chiefs will be back on the road to play the Vikings in Week 5.