Super Bowl LIV: Chiefs beat 49ers as Patrick Mahomes leads late comeback

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — For one brief moment, Tyreek Hill lost faith.

His Chiefs trailed by 10 points midway through the fourth quarter and the speedy wide receiver was starting to worry that they would run out of time and lose Super Bowl LIV. He even expressed his doubts to his quarterback.

“I was like, ‘Man, how are we going to pull this off?’  ” he said forlornly.

Mahomes looked him in the eye.

“You’ve got to believe, brother,” the quarterback told him. “It’s going to happen, man. I can feel it.”

And then he did more than feel it. He did it.

Mahomes, who had been playing in the unfamiliar realm of mortals for most of the game, threw two touchdown passes in a span of 3 1⁄2 minutes in the fourth quarter to help turn that deficit into a 31-20 win over the 49ers at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday.

It was the third time this postseason that the Chiefs came back from a double-digit deficit, something that had never happened in NFL history.

But maybe there has never been a quarterback like Mahomes in that history either.

Because at a time when it seemed the situation was most dire for the Chiefs, when they were one play away from possibly losing the game, it was Mahomes who defibrillated them back on the path to a championship. And he sparked it all with a pass to the non-believer.

Down 20-10 with 7:13 left. Facing third-and-15. The call came into the huddle; it’s a deep play that will need protection up front to allow the routes to develop. If it fails — if the 49ers can get to Mahomes, as they had been doing all night, for either a sack or to force another interception — the game might be over.

Instead, Mahomes launched a 44-yard pass to Hill that reminded everyone — the fans, the 49ers and even Hill himself — why the quarterback is the new face of the NFL as the league heads into its second century.

“It’s Magic Mahomes, it’s Showtime Mahomes,” tight end Travis Kelce said. “He’s going to be himself no matter what the scenario is. And you know what? I love him. I love him. He willed this team back into the game.”

Three plays after the Hill connection, Mahomes tried to hit Kelce in the end zone. He didn’t pick up a touchdown, but he did draw a pass-interference penalty that set up the Chiefs at the 1. On the next play, Mahomes found Kelce in the end zone and cut the 49ers’ lead to 20-17 with 6:13 left.

After forcing a three-and-out, the Chiefs got the ball back at their 35 with 5:10 left. Mahomes hit Sammy Watkins with a 38-yard seed — beating Richard Sherman in man coverage — to reach the 10. On third-and-goal from the 5, Mahomes hit running back Damien Williams on a swing pass for the go-ahead touchdown with 2:44 left.

The comeback gave the Chiefs their second Super Bowl title and their first since Super Bowl IV. In Super Bowl parlance, that’s a difference of L years. But the letter the Chiefs were focusing on all game was W.

Andy Reid, a first-time Super Bowl champion after his 21st season as a head coach, called his team “dirty tough-minded.”

And his quarterback?

“He kept firing, that’s what he did,” Reid said. “The guys around him just believed in him. We all did.”

The Chiefs didn’t stop after taking their late lead, either. They scored again on a 38-yard run by Williams with 1:12 left — giving the Chiefs three touchdowns in a span of 5:01 — and hounded Jimmy Garoppolo, with Frank Clark sacking him on a fourth down and Kendall Fuller picking off a pass in the final minute to secure the victory.

But it was Mahomes, named the game’s MVP, who shined brightest. It just took him until the fourth quarter to do so. It was during that time that he completed 10 of 17 passes for 141 yards and both of his touchdowns.

“Obviously, the third quarter didn’t go the way I wanted it to,” said Mahomes, who threw two second-half interceptions. “I tried to force some things. But the guys believed in me and gave me confidence.”

So it works both way, apparently.

Kelce said the Chiefs simply made up their minds to come back.

“Let’s make plays,” he said of the vibe on the sideline. “Enough is enough. Let’s put our foot down and go make plays. [Mahomes] has that look in his eye, man. You just know you have a warrior going to battle for you and you just want to be accountable to that.”

It took 100 seasons for the NFL to arrive at Super Bowl LIV.

It took 50 years for the Kansas City Chiefs to get back to the championship game.

And it took about five minutes of play in the fourth quarter for Mahomes to secure his enduring legacy in the history of all of them.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.