Patrick Mahomes takes blame for Chiefs’ offensive struggles vs. Titans: ‘Today it was probably me’

The Chiefs had never scored fewer than 13 points in game that Patrick Mahomes started before Week 7 of this season. Kansas City scored just three points in a 27-3 blowout loss at Tennessee on Sunday.

Mahomes pointed the finger at himself following the loss.

“Today it was probably me,” Mahomes said of the Chiefs’ offensive struggles, per ESPN. “I was just pressing a little bit too early in the game. We kind of got down and we were in that kind of mode [of] no-huddle, which you don’t want to be in in the NFL. You can execute a little bit but it’s hard to sustain drives. I’ve just got to be better early in games so we don’t get behind like we did today.

“I have to be better in order for this offense to score points.”

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Mahomes’ breakdown of the offense’s performance is fair. He and the Chiefs generated just 52 yards in the first half as they fell into a 27-0 halftime deficit. Mahomes had two first-half turnovers; he threw another interception — his ninth of the season, good for the second-most in the NFL — and lost one of his two fumbles.

Mahomes finished the game with 206 yards and an interception on 20-of-35 passing. He led the team with 35 rushing yards on six scrambles. It’s worth noting that Mahomes exited the game early after a hit to the head; the Chiefs elected to pull him, though he later cleared the NFL’s concussion protocol,

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The Chiefs are 3-4 after the loss and are tied for third in the AFC West with the Broncos. The adversity is new to Mahomes, who was 38-8 as a starter prior to 2021 and has never lost more than four games in a single season. He doesn’t believe it’s time to panic, however.

“We have enough leaders on this team that we have to find a way,” Mahomes said. “I don’t know what that’s going to take yet. We’ll go in. We’ll talk about it. We’ll watch the film but I trust we’ll find it. That’s part of leadership. That’s what great teams are, being able to battle through adversity. It’s been kind of rainbows and flowers and awesome for these last few years. But whenever you want to build something substantial and you want to build something great, you’re going to go through [times] like this.

“It’s still early in the year. We can still get whatever we want but it’s going to take us getting better every single day. . . . We have the talent in this locker room that we can make it happen.”

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The Chiefs will look to make that happen in Week 8 when they return to Kansas City to take on the Giants.