Patrick Mahomes had one clear thought when an overtime Colts fumble call was headed to replay: he didn’t want the internet to lose its mind.
That moment came during the Kansas City Chiefs’ 33-30 overtime win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday Night Football, a game that wasn’t settled until the final second of overtime. The original ruling went Kansas City’s way, with officials saying the Chiefs had stripped the ball. But replay review showed the ball carrier was barely touched, and the call was overturned.
Mahomes said after the game that he was relieved the controversial ruling did not stand.
“I didn’t want to see Twitter’s reaction if they would have called it a fumble,” he explained.
The quarterback’s comment captured the reality that follows the Chiefs everywhere: any borderline call tends to spark talk that the game is being handed to them. In this case, Mahomes was almost amused by the idea of dodging that wave of backlash. More importantly, the overturned play meant Kansas City had to finish the job on its own terms.
And the Chiefs did exactly that.
After a quiet opener, Mahomes came back with a huge night, going 32 of 47 for 382 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. He got Kansas City moving early with a 13-yard touchdown throw to Travis Kelce, then added another scoring strike to Xavier Worthy. In the third quarter, he put together a clutch drive that ended with a touchdown pass to Jalen Royals.
The final push came on a 22-yard completion to Kenneth Walker III, setting up Harrison Butker’s game-winning 40-yard field goal.
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