NFL: How Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes single-handedly decided the Super Bowl

It was Patrick Mahomes.

And over the next eight minutes, he delivered yet another drive for the ages, one that will stand as a signature moment in his glittering career. Each time he needed a solution, he knew precisely where to find it. Even with the Chiefs’ season one play from ending as he faced a fourth-and-1, down 22-19 to the San Francisco 49ers, Mahomes trusted himself to dash for a first down. He later ran for another 19 yards, as part of a sequence when his singular wizardry was on full display.

On the 13-play, 75-yard drive he completed every single one of his passes. The last of them ended up in Mecole Hardman’s hands for a Super Bowl-winning touchdown.

“How much confidence is there in the world?” Hardman said. “Whatever that is, that’s what we have in him. The man has done it time and time again.”

It’s been enough for the entire Chiefs’ locker room to take Mahomes’ ability to rescue them as an article of faith.

“I’ve known we’re in every single game I’ve ever played with him,” tight end Travis Kelce said of Mahomes. “That guy’s got magic in his right arm. He found ways to propel us.”

Mahomes also propelled himself into the rarefied air of the game’s all-time great quarterbacks. He’s now only the fifth to win at least three titles, and the first since Tom Brady’s New England Patriots 19 years ago to claim back-to-back championships. Now Mahomes only trails Brady, Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana — the latter of whom was on hand to watch Mahomes topple the team he led to four Super Bowl victories.

And while Mahomes still has some way to go to match Brady’s seven rings, the opening act to his career is now completely unprecedented: In his six years as a starter, the Chiefs’ season has never ended before the AFC Championship.

The Chiefs can be sure that as long as they can put the ball back in Mahomes’ hands, they’re always alive — not that this is news to anyone inside the organisation. Back in 2020, Kansas City handed him a 10-year deal worth up to $500 million, the richest contract in NFL history. Head coach Andy Reid was also prepared to build the team’s entire offence around Mahomes’ unique set of skills. The kid who was also drafted to play professional baseball can throw off balance, release the ball from strange angles, and scamper out of trouble when he needs to. That kind of versatility was too precious for Reid to change.

“He brings out the best in me, because he lets me be me,” Mahomes said. “I don’t think I’d be the quarterback I am if I didn’t have Coach Reid.”

What made this Super Bowl triumph even more remarkable was that Mahomes didn’t only have to survive one of the hardest roads to a title in NFL history, he also needed to overcome his own team’s roster-building strategy. Two off-seasons ago, the Chiefs traded away his best receiver in Tyreek Hill. And their offensive acquisitions since then haven’t been quite up to the same standard. Before he caught Sunday’s winning touchdown, Hardman was cast off by the Jets midway through this season and joined a receiving corps that had repeatedly failed Mahomes.

But that hardly mattered to him once this Super Bowl spilled into overtime. From the moment the Chiefs got the ball following a 49ers field goal, Mahomes turned to his teammates and told them what was about to happen.

“Come on,” he said. “We’re gonna go score.”

When Mahomes makes a promise like that, the players who have witnessed so many of his miracles before have a tendency to believe him.

“Never a doubt in my mind, baby. Never a doubt in my mind,” Kelce said. “We’ve got the best quarterback in the league, we’ve got the best offensive mind in the league.”

This was a peculiar season for the Chiefs. Throughout Mahomes’ entire career, he had always found a way to move the chains with breathtaking plays, no matter who surrounded him. Even when he lost Hill, Kansas City’s offence led the league in both yards and points in 2022. But that completely changed this season, when the Kansas City attack went through spurts when it looked completely broken.

It wasn’t difficult to identify one of the reasons why. The Chiefs led the NFL in a statistic no team wants to be first in: dropped passes.

So when the Chiefs fell behind 10-0 on Sunday and repeatedly stalled on offence early in this Super Bowl, it wasn’t out of the norm. The big mistakes — such as when running back Isiah Pacheco fumbled the ball right after Mahomes hit Hardman on a perfectly placed 52-yard strike — had been there all season.

But just as he had over the course of the postseason, Mahomes kept doing what he does best: putting his teammates in position to succeed. In the second half of Kansas City’s 27-24 divisional round win over the Buffalo Bills, he hit Marquez Valdes-Scantling with beautiful tosses on key drives. Valdes-Scantling, during the regular season, had been one of the team’s main problems — he notably let a potentially game-winning bomb fall through his arms late in a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

The next week, in the AFC Championship, Mahomes did it again. Facing third-and-9 against the Baltimore Ravens late in the fourth quarter, he hit Valdes-Scantling on a 32-yard strike to ice the 17-10 victory.

Then, late in the Super Bowl, Mahomes continued with the same mindset: if he kept on making plays, it would eventually all work out.

“To have the ball in our hands,” wide receiver Rashee Rice said, “we just knew we were in control.”

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Even the final play, when Hardman appeared wide open, contained a subtle stroke of brilliance from Mahomes. To help his receiver, who had just 14 catches in six regular season games for Kansas City, Mahomes moved the defence with his eyes before rolling to his right and hitting Hardman for the score.

“That’s a little risky always,” Mahomes said afterward.

The gamble paid off. Seconds later, confetti was flying all over the field — and Mahomes had won his third Super Bowl.