Super Bowl LIV: Patrick Mahomes has magic like legendary Joe Montana
Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs celebrates after throwing a touchdown pass against the San Francisco 49ers during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl 54 on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020 in Miami. Credit: Getty Images/Maddie Meyer
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla.
On the same field where Joe Montana authored one of the greatest comebacks in Super Bowl history, Patrick Mahomes crafted his own NFL legacy on Sunday, beating the latter-day 49ers, 31-20, in Super Bowl LIV with the kind of late-game magic Montana once summoned.
And he did it with Montana looking on, hopeful that his former team would win the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1994 season. Instead, Montana watched a next-generation quarterback do what he once did in his Hall of Fame career.
This place was called Joe Robbie Stadium when Montana, trailing the Bengals 16-13, took over at his own 8-yard line with 3:20 left. He looked up into the crowd, told teammate Harris Barton to look up into the stands because actor John Candy was there, and drove the 49ers for the winning touchdown, finishing it off with a scoring strike to John Taylor in a 20-16 win.
It’s now called Hard Rock Stadium, and Mahomes added to his burgeoning legacy with a third straight playoff comeback win, this time on the game’s biggest stage.
“It’s amazing. Just to be here, it’s surreal, finding a way to win,” Mahomes said. “We’ll enjoy this for a long time. It truly is historic to be here and win this game.”
Historic indeed. Mahomes, 24, is the youngest player to win both a regular-season MVP (in 2018) and a Super Bowl MVP. He went 26-for-42 for 286 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions and also ran for a TD.
Mahomes had been ineffective in the early part of the second half, throwing two interceptions to open the door for the 49ers, who responded with 10 points off the turnovers to take a 20-10 lead on the strength of Jimmy Garoppolo’s passing and Raheem Mostert’s running.
But with the kind of breathtaking flourish that Montana summoned 31 years earlier, Mahomes produced a spectacular fourth-quarter comeback with two touchdown drives, the first culminating with a 1-yard pass to tight end Travis Kelce and the second a 5-yard pass to running back Damien Williams.
Williams then blew it open with a 38-yard touchdown run down the left sideline, giving the Chiefs three touchdowns in a span of 5:01, a 31-20 lead and their first Super Bowl championship in a half-century.
Fifty years after Hank Stram and Len Dawson beat the Vikings at Tulane Stadium in Super Bowl IV, the Chiefs made the most of their first trip back to the title game.
Mahomes delivered a Super Bowl championship for 61-year-old coach Andy Reid, providing the only missing piece in a wonderful career.
Reid had been this far once before, losing to the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX. This time he had a quarterback for the ages in Mahomes, and the son of former major-league pitcher Pat Mahomes came through for the venerable coach.
Montana gave the legendary Bill Walsh a third Super Bowl title on this field in his final game as an NFL coach, and Mahomes now has given Reid his first title.
It might not be the last. Unlike Walsh, who was burned out after a brilliant 10-year career with the 49ers, Reid has no intentions of stepping aside anytime soon. He’ll get to ride the wave with Mahomes, continuing on his way with arguably the most gifted passer in today’s NFL.
“He’s one of the best coaches of all time. He already was before he won this game,” Mahomes said. “He works harder than anyone I’ve ever known. He deserves it.”
This one certainly didn’t go the way they drew it up, though.
It was Mahomes who produced the uncharacteristic mistakes, throwing two killer interceptions in the second half against a resurgent 49ers defense that is loaded with first-round talent and certainly played like it.
Two pass attempts to Tyreek Hill resulted in two critical interceptions. The first came in the third quarter, when Mahomes threw into the arms of linebacker Fred Warner, and the second one occurred early in the fourth quarter, when he threw behind Hill and the ball caromed off his hands to Tarvarius Moore.
Mahomes had been perfect up to Sunday’s game, throwing a combined eight touchdown passes in stirring comeback wins in the divisional round and AFC title game. But for much of the night, he was not himself, unable to summon the kind of performance that had been typical of his meteoric rise in two full seasons as a starter.
He’d taken over in 2018 for Alex Smith and produced an MVP season with 50 touchdown passes. His numbers dipped in the 2019 regular season, when he had 26 touchdown passes, but he still showed plenty of resourcefulness in leading the Chiefs to the AFC West title and a first-round bye.
And just as he did in comeback wins over the Texans and Titans, he came up with more late-game magic against the 49ers. Mahomes was magnificent. Just when it seemed as if the 49ers had him buried under the weight of a relentless pass rush and smart play in the secondary, he did what only the great ones can do. He summoned the wherewithal to make the big plays – including a deep pass to Hill to spark the first comeback drive of the fourth quarter and another to Sammy Watkins to lead the second.
And he ended each drive where it needed to be: in the end zone.
With his championship dreams now complete, Mahomes can take his rightful place as one of the great young quarterbacks in NFL history. And by the time his career is over, there might be more where this came from.
He hungers to be the best and is willing to do what it takes to get there.
“It’s going to take a long time of consistency to be where I want to be in the end,” he said. “As long as we keep the people that we have in this organization and the coach that we have, we have a chance to be good year-in and year-out.”
But Mahomes himself is the one indispensable man. Without him, there is no Super Bowl victory. With him, there can be more. And maybe many more.
For now, it is time to admire the first one.
The great one was great, especially when he needed to be.
Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”
