Why Patrick Mahomes referenced this 2016 interception vs. K-State this week

In a brief sequence this week, Patrick Mahomes found himself digging into the weeds of all that had gone wrong during one particular snap. The timing of his analysis — days after the Chiefs’ 31-point win — might seem curious on the surface.

Before one answer, he took a breath loud enough for all to hear, an intentional sigh to demonstrate his irritation at the outcome of the play he was describing.

Some key details before we go any farther: This play happened on Oct. 8, 2016, and he was the one to bring it up.

That’s way back when Mahomes was a junior at Texas Tech. Which means it didn’t take place in a Chiefs uniform or in Kansas City, though it wasn’t far from here, just a 120-mile jaunt down I-70 to Manhattan, Kansas, the proverbial Little Apple.

On that evening at Kansas State, Mahomes turned to fake a handoff after a first-quarter shotgun snap, and then immediately fired a pass to his left.

Intercepted.

D.J. Reed.

Gone.

“He jumped it before a receiver could get there,” Mahomes said. “It went to the house.”

Why did the play come up this week? Again, for full context, Mahomes volunteered it. Wouldn’t be writing about it if he hadn’t, actually.

The question before him, from radio host Steve Walls, simply inquired about the Jets’ cornerbacks ahead of the Chiefs’ trip to New York. They’re quite good. You might have heard of them: Sauce Gardner, and, oh, yeah, D.J. Reed.

That guy.

The first thing out of Mahomes’ mouth in the reply: “I think Reed got me in college for a pick-six.”

He said “think.” But he knew. And then he proceeded to describe how it unfolded in detail, as though it was replaying in his head.

I’m going to take a step back for a minute. One of the more fascinating parts about covering professional athletes is prying at what makes them tick. They’re all different. Mahomes has left a trail of bread crumbs on a path to the most frustrating moments of his career.

During training camp, for example, I’d asked about his favorite preseason throw. He had some highlights. I didn’t know which he’d choose. None of them, as it turns out. Instead, he pointed to an interception then, too. In a follow-up reply, he mentioned that the Chiefs would run the same route in a key play in his first Super Bowl.

Some of his biggest mistakes have become his most beneficial plays over the long-term. And he can’t forget the mistakes.

Let’s tweak that: He won’t forget the mistakes.

“I don’t throw a lot of pick-sixes,” Mahomes said this week, about when he started talking about the college interception as though it took place seven days ago, not seven years ago. “That’s something you realize because that’s route recognition. That’s jumping the ball. (That’s) making a play.

“That’s stuff that you really have to be aware of whenever you’re going out there and playing quarterback.”

We’re not solely diving into the Xs and Os of a play from 2,500 days earlier, but also what it illuminates now.

A player who thrives on the negative.

And on the other side? A player who desperately needed something positive.

You see, a week earlier, West Virginia had picked on Reed, and he would later blame himself for it. He hadn’t done his homework, he said, as recapped then by The Star’s Kellis Robinett. So ahead of the following game against Texas Tech, Reed said he made a point to pour into the film.

He knew what he saw.

“I just told myself before the play happened, ‘If something goes to the flats, I am going to break on it,’” Reed told reporters after the game.

In retrospect, there’s a funny detail I should probably mention: The interception wasn’t Mahomes’ fault. Not really, anyway.

He basically threw a wide receiver screen, a pass Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury had called after noticing the K-State coverage. Tech got the look it wanted, but the receiver missed a block. Actually, Reed saw it unfolding and cut in front of the would-be block.

We’ve already mentioned what came next.

Well, what came immediately next.

It’s certainly too strong to say one particular play helped shape the NFL careers of two players — Mahomes a two-time MVP and Super Bowl champion and Reed a member of one of the best cornerback tandems in the NFL.

But it undoubtedly shed some light on how they got to the league. On why they’re still thriving there.

In an interview with 247 Sports years later, Reed would acknowledge the play “gave me a lot of confidence” after he’d altered his week of preparation. He’d learned something.

Mahomes finished that game 45 of 62 for 504 yards, exactly 400 more passing yards than Wildcats quarterback Jesse Ertz. After the game, K-State coach Bill Snyder said of Mahomes, “There’s a reason why he’s the leading passer in the world.”

Mahomes didn’t mention any of that this week. Kansas State won the game, 44-38. To most, it wasn’t really an afternoon of defensive highlights.

Except to two players on their way to the bigger and brighter.

It’s these kinds of conversations that should have informed NFL front offices that Mahomes was perhaps not simply a system quarterback, even if his predecessors had been. The numbers fit neatly into the Air Raid era. The arm gets all of the attention on draft nights.

But the memory — and the incessant need to occupy it with the mistakes — has been as suggestive of his peak as anything. It’s been the root of his growth at this level.

Well, we’ll learn a bit more about his growth in the Big Apple. Mahomes has another shot at Reed on Sunday Night Football.

He remembers the past.