After another disastrous outing, at least the Kansas City Chiefs can take solace in knowing Patrick Mahomes does not appear to have been seriously injured in Sunday's 27-3 loss to the Tennessee Titans – but all is not well, either.
The Chiefs' star quarterback left the game midway through the fourth quarter after taking an inadvertent shot to the head from Tennessee's Jeffery Simmons while being dragged down by Denico Autry.
Mahomes did not return to the game, as Chad Henne took the reins for Kansas City's final possession, but Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said Mahomes cleared the NFL's concussion protocol and it was his decision not to send him back into the lopsided game.
The most prominent indicator that Mahomes does indeed "feel fine" as he told reporters post-game was that he spoke to the media at all. If he was still in the concussion protocol he would not have been compelled to do so.
"Y'all saw the hit," Mahomes said. "I took my time getting up, but I felt fine. I did everything I needed to do to be here."
The overriding question now is what Mahomes and the Chiefs can do to get back on track moving forward.
Since Mahomes took over as Kansas City's starting quarterback for the 2018 season, the Chiefs have never lost more than four regular-season games. Sunday's ugly defeat dropped them to 3-4.
While Mahomes was hardly the only man at fault, he turned in one of the worst games of his career, including an all-time low 62.3 passer rating.
He also lost a fumble and threw his ninth interception of the season, tying him for the league lead. He threw just 11 interceptions across 29 games over the last two regular seasons combined.
"Today, it was probably me," he told reporters. "Just pressing a little bit too early in the game. And then we got down, and we were in that mode where you’re no-huddle, which you don’t want to be in the NFL. You can execute it a little bit, but it’s hard to sustain drives."
The pressure of defending their AFC title appears to have been a strain on the Chiefs in general and Mahomes in particular. Sunday was the second game in his NFL career in which he did not lead a touchdown drive, the other being the 31-9 Super Bowl loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in February.
"I want to win," Mahomes said. "At the end of the day, I want to win. So I try to do whatever I can to win. But you have to believe in the guys around you. You have to know you can go the long way. You can take a short pass, and guys will make guys miss. You can hang in the pocket and make throws. "
"But at the end of the day, I just want to win. Whatever that takes, I’m going to try to do. I’ll look at this film, learn from it, and try to come out better Monday night this week."