KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes stalked Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Demarcus Robinson on the sideline as chants of “MVP” echoed throughout Arrowhead Stadium, trying to track down a football that would serve as a keepsake not only of this day but of this season.
Mahomes, a first-year starter, had just thrown an 89-yard scoring strike to Robinson, the 50th time one of his passes ended up in the end zone. It also gave Mahomes more than 5,000 yards passing, not to mention put a dagger in Oakland and clinched the AFC West title and No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
“They’re special,” Mahomes said Sunday after securing that memento, and after Kansas City wrapped up a 35-3 whitewash of the Raiders. “To do those things in this league, that doesn’t happen.”
Not very often anyway.
Mahomes finished with 281 yards passing, the highlights the strike to Robinson and a 67-yard TD pass to Tyreek Hill. That gave him 5,097 yards and 50 touchdown passes, and allowed Mahomes to join Peyton Manning as the only QBs to hit 5,000 and 50 in the same season.
“This team, we love each other. We root for each other. And that’s why we’ve had so much success,” said Mahomes, who already had shattered just about every franchise passing record.
Hill finished with five catches for 101 yards, becoming the Chiefs’ single-season leader for yards receiving with 1,479, while adding a fourth-quarter touchdown run. Damien Williams added 51 yards and a score on the ground as the Chiefs (12-4) beat the Raiders for the eighth time in nine games.
The decisive win came after Kansas City squandered a chance to clinch the division with a fourth-quarter collapse against the Chargers and again in a shootout loss last weekend in Seattle.
“This was a tricky game,” Chiefs Coach Andy Reid said. “We felt like we let off the accelerator there lately and we didn’t take advantage of opportunities.”
No problem with that Sunday.
Derek Carr had his league-leading streak of 332 passes without an interception snapped when Daniel Sorensen of the Chiefs returned a pick for a touchdown in the first quarter. Carr threw another pick and lost a fumble as Oakland (4-12) turned the ball over on its first four possessions.
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