KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With another 300-yard passing game and four more touchdowns in Sunday night's victory against Cincinnati, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes continued tearing up record books and exceeding his own sky-high expectations.
“You think you're going to have success,” Mahomes said. “I didn't expect this much.”
Mahomes' 358 passing yards agains the Bengals gave him his franchise-record sixth-straight 300-yard passing game. That also eclipsed the club record of five 300-yard passing games in a single season reached last year by Alex Smith. Only three quarterbacks in NFL history own longer streaks. New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees had nine straight 300-yard games twice (over the 2011-12 and 2012-13). Indianapolis passer Andrew Luck had a streak of eight-straight games in 2014, while Denver's Peyton Manning had a seven-game stretch during 2012-2013.
After the game, Mahomes shifted credit to his pass catchers his red-hot start.
“I knew that with the weapons we have and I knew if I just ran and did what coach (Andy) Reid told me to do that there was a chance that we could be really, really good.”
Mahomes posted those six 300-yard passing games in the first eight games of his career. That shatters the record of four by both Luck and St. Louis' quarterback Kurt Warner during the first eight games of their careers.
Warner saw another of his records for the first eight games of a career fall. The four touchdowns from Mahomes give him 22 on the season, eclipsing the 21 throw by Warner during his historic start in 1999.
As for most passing yards in the first eight games of a career, Mahomes owns that mark as well. His 2,507 yards top the 2,404 yards throw for by Luck in 2012.
Those numbers would frighten any NFL defense facing the Chiefs, but Mahomes gave future opponents a bigger reason to worry after the game with his assessment of the team's offense.
“I still feel like we're building on that,” Mahomes said. “We're still missing plays, and hopefully we can keep getting better and better as the season goes on.”
Head coach Andy Reid said Mahomes has handled everything well so far, but he agrees that his young quarterback can only improve his hot start.
“I don't ever see him looking back,” Reid said. That's just now how he rolls and neither do I. We are going to try to get a couple more and keep doing what are doing."
