Injury to Patrick Mahomes brought KC Chiefs together

Less than three weeks ago, the KC Chiefs were in the midst of a tail spin. The team had lost two devastating games to AFC competitors, the team was blitzed by injuries, and the defense was playing worse than it had the year before.

Then, against the hapless Denver Broncos, Patrick Mahomes took an innocuous quarterback sneak for a small gain and had to have his knee cap literally snapped back into place on the field. With Mahomes limping to the x-ray room and the Kansas City Chiefs defense getting shredded earlier by the “elite” Joe Flacco, it was fair for most Chiefs fans to count the season as finished.

Now, at the start of November, it’s fair to say that very moment might have been a turning point that brought the most out of this team.

To a lot of you at home reading this, that statement might seem like complete garbage. How on earth could Kansas City’s young star quarterback getting hurt help this team?

Well, to start with it forced the other players to step up. This is notable on the defense who’ve brought great performances the last few weeks. The defense struggled all year giving up big games to quarterbacks like rookie Gardner Minshew and Jacoby Brisset.

The defense flat-out dominated in Denver. After giving up a first drive touchdown, the defense was on fire, notching eight sacks while only allowing 71 rush yards and shutting the Broncos offense down for the rest of the night.

Against an incredibly talented Packers team, the KC Chiefs were without Chris Jones and Frank Clark, but still put up an impressive performance, keeping the game close even when the offense was intent on fumbling the game away.

Finally, against Minnesota, a team with a quarterback who was player of the month, a running back who leads the league in rush yards, and a unit who is statistically one of the best in the NFL, the Chiefs defense came to play.

Anyone could have made an excuse for this defense to struggle against the Vikings, but instead they rose to the occasion, dominating the line of scrimmage and holding star receiver Stefon Diggs to one catch for four yards.

For the last year and a half, the Chiefs defense was asked to be just good enough to stay out of the way of the offense and they consistently weren’t. Now they were forced to play well and they did exactly that. Without a star quarterback to bail them out, the Kansas City Chiefs defense has risen to a level beyond what they’ve been.

Let’s not pretend the defense is the only unit who rose to the occasion in Mahomes’ absence. It became increasingly clear that the Chiefs offense was becoming content letting Mahomes play “hero ball” this season. That means what would happen is the protection would break down, the receivers couldn’t get open, and everybody would just wait for Mahomes to do something incredible to bail them out.

We’ve seen the Chiefs work harder to get the ball to guys like Mecole Hardman and Damien Williams the last few weeks because more players have been required to contribute for success. With Mahomes back, this shouldn’t change as these players are comfortable on the field and can get more snaps alongside the usual stars.

Finally, maybe the biggest reason, is without Mahomes, the Chiefs could get healthy. Most people in Kansas City assumed that without Mahomes, the Chiefs had no chance against the Packers and Vikings.

The Chiefs took this opportunity to not rush back guys like Chris Jones, Frank Clark, and Sammy Watkins, and because of that, they’ll be more healthy come playoff time. Mahomes himself is now healthier because beyond his knee he’s been able to rest his ankle and not take hits every week because of an equally injured offensive line.

As bad of luck as the Chiefs have had with injuries, none of them have been too severe and soon even more players will be back healthy. It’s also given young guys like Khalen Saunders and Rashad Fenton opportunities to play and they’ve grown into solid pieces because of it.

Injuries stink and watching a player you love get injured is one of the worst things a fan can experience. However, a few weeks later and Patrick Mahomes look more healthy than he has all season.

The KC Chiefs are playing more confident than they have all season. Injuries have a weird way of rallying a team together and maybe that’s what we’re witnessing in Kansas City.