Patrick Mahomes reflects on his speech during comeback win over Houston Texans
"I'm not the only leader on this team"
Saturday 18 January 2020 16:12, UK
Patrick Mahomes was seen rallying his team-mates on the sidelines last Sunday in a bid to inspire a comeback from 24-0 down against the Houston Texans.
The Kansas City Chiefs would go on to to produce seven straight touchdown drives and score 41 unanswered points to seal a spot in this weekend's AFC Championship against the Tennessee Titans.
On the back of his words of encouragement, Mahomes has directed praise towards the leadership across the entire Chiefs setup.
"We all communicate with each other, I think that's the great thing about this team," he told reporters.
"I'm not the only leader on this team, we have leaders across the board at every single position group, all around the team.
"What I rely on is going out there and competing, no matter what the score is. Winning or losing I'm going to give my best effort on every single play, that's how I was raised and that's how this team flows.
"I just wanted to make sure everybody was still of the right mindset."
The Chiefs had been the architects of their own downfall in a torrid first quarter, with a string of dropped catches and a fumble from Tyreek Hill that led to a Houston touchdown on a punt return contributing towards their early deficit.
Mahomes added: "With everything that had happened at the beginning of the game I still felt we were doing good things, we just weren't executing at a high enough level.
"So I wanted to make sure I went to those guys and let them know that and I think that just comes with knowing your team-mates, knowing how the game is going and knowing how to get back on it."
Safety Tyrann Mathieu was singled out by his quarter-back having had a major influence as a veteran presence in the secondary following his trade from the Texans back in March.
Mathieu supplied 33 tackles, one sack, three interceptions and seven pass defenses across his last six games of the regular season, leading the Chiefs' significant improvement on defense over the second half of the year.
"He's a natural born leader, that's just who he is," said Mahomes. "He doesn't have to do anything other than be himself.
"He goes out there every single day and just by his attitude and mindset he's leading other guys. I think that's huge when you have guys like that around the team.
"Obviously his play speaks for itself but the way he's able to just every single day be great it really does spread throughout the team."
Conference Championship coverage begins at 7pm on Sunday on Sky Sports Action; Titans at Chiefs kicks off at 8.05pm, Packers at 49ers is at 11.40pm
