Chiefs - 22, Giants - 9
Q. Can you take us through the pass to Tyquan there in the first quarter?
PATRICK MAHOMES: I mean I think we had the pass on the field, and with the review I got to talk it over with the guys on the sideline. We thought they might play a man coverage. We had a good play that we got to.
It was just about buying time, that defensive line. So I wish I could have got it a little bit further and made it an easier catch. But a tremendous catch by him on that right there. And securing it and getting us to the 1 so we could score a touchdown.
Q. That was your first read on that play?
PATRICK MAHOMES: Yeah, it's kind of a go read where it's kind of man or zone type read. So having the man coverage, we had a play where we run towards the post and move back out.
And he did a good job of winning. Obviously I was rolling the other way, so it was a little further throw. Just give him a chance to make a play and (inaudible) made a play.
Q. When you went to the sideline you're intending it's going to be to Tyquan specifically?
PATRICK MAHOMES: I like the play just in general. Just knowing that they probably could play man, that was a good big match-up alert. So going in there talking to Nags and Coach Girardi and Coach Reid and saying, if it's man go there, if it's zone, we have another place we can get to.
All else fails, you throw the ball short, get more yards so we can kick a field goal. We were all on the same page and we were able to go out there and execute.
Q. Seemed like you guys were in the rhythm in the second half. What could you say that was maybe different from the first half?
PATRICK MAHOMES: We just executed better. I think the first few drives we drove the ball down the field really well. We just had mistakes, penalties and alignment stuff, stuff that we'll have to clean up for sure.
But I felt we were moving the ball the right way. Kind of struggled there at the end of the second quarter, but we were able to get points at the end.
But it was just finishing the drives. I think it's something that's important in this league is getting touchdowns not field goals. And when we score touchdowns it looks a lot better than kicking long field goals.
Q. When you are getting field goals instead of touchdowns, what does it say about your defensive performance (inaudible)?
PATRICK MAHOMES: They've been playing great these past two weeks, playing winning football. For us, we have to clean stuff up and get better and better. But they're playing good, they're playing tight coverage, they're rushing, they're blitzing. They're doing all type of different stuff that you're supposed to do as a winning defense.
For us, if they can continue to do that and we can do clean stuff up, we'll win a lot of games.
Q. Coach said the second quarter was ugly, kind of hard to watch. What was it out like there just trying to find your way through? And then you had a couple of weird passes that kind of got behind the line?
PATRICK MAHOMES: Yeah, I can't thrown the ball backwards. That's not good. So just letting the rush get to me a bit and trying to throw it out, looking to see if the guy is actually in the spot that we've got to get to.
Obviously did it once. I knew immediately it was backwards. You could tell I'm running to go recover the ball even though they had blown the whistle. In the second, did it again. I don't think I've done it maybe ever in my career. So, to do it in twice in a short span like that. I will say it was a great tackle by myself. That was a big-time tackle. I'm not going to try to do that again, but that was -- we'll throw the ball forward from now on.
Q. There was a spot that we saw on TV, coached talked to Travis over on the sideline. You guys get emotional about these things. What was Travis like out there in the huddles and all?
PATRICK MAHOMES: He's Travis. He's normal Travis. He's a guy that loves it. He loves it, passionate about it. That's what made him so great.
I've not seen what y'all are talking about, but I know Coach Reid loves him and Travis loves him. That's what you want from the greats.
Q. The touchdown pass, seemed like maybe Tyquan wasn't your first option. Does that play a combination of the trust you sort of developed in him to see sort of on that back shoulder to see that he's open?
PATRICK MAHOMES: For sure. Just knowing kind of the coverage, I think that was a good job by him, knowing that we were trying to get something to JuJu or Travis out in the flat and having a spot route for JuJu and how their double (inaudible), ran to get to Travis, get out of the way because Tyquan in a one-on-one situation there in the backside, did a good job getting open and being in the right spot when I turned to get that third progression he's in my view and I made the throw.
Q. That play you made, huge play, seven points. What kind of impact do you think it had on the game?
PATRICK MAHOMES: It was a huge play. It was fixing my own mistake. It's hard to take credit for it because the reason it happened. But obviously a big moment because he's about to pick that ball up.
I could see his eyes get big. He's about to score a touchdown. You've got to finish this game. You've got to compete, love the game. Whenever you make a mistake, you've got to still leave it all on the line. We were able to get the ball back and the defense had a huge stop for us there at the end of half. We were able to got three points. Definitely momentum swing and making a play not as bad.
Q. You hit Tyquan earlier on that drive, like on a third and eight I think it was. Were you targeting him?
PATRICK MAHOMES: No, I was throwing it to Hollywood who was open, but Tyquan was running the post, I think he got jammed up with the line of scrimmage.
I saw Hollywood. I also saw Dexter Lawrence. I was trying to throw it to his spot. I heard the crowd reacting in a bad way. I looked up and the guy I wasn't throwing it to caught it. It's like let's go.
Q. That first drive in the second half looked like you guys were as sharp as you've been. What went into that? Was it some kind of reboot at halftime in some way?
PATRICK MAHOMES: We talked at halftime. I think more than anything, guys -- we wanted to execute. Like at the end of the day, it's all about execution in this league, and you make one mistake you can really hurt your drive. Defenses are good. They do a good job capitalizing on that.
We had a couple drives early in the game we drove down the field, pushed ourselves back, had to kick long field goals. For us, just executing all the way throughout a drive and seeing that, that's what we want to be. And we have to continue to do that more often.
Q. (Inaudible) you probably didn't have many reps with Tyquan last year, right?
PATRICK MAHOMES: No, but he would come in -- like, you get in those practices sometimes and guys are banged up in the end of the season. He came in, ran some of those deeper routes. I would throw to him a couple times last year to see what he had. You could see he had juice.
Now just getting into OTAs and into training camp, he was one of the guys down there working with me in Texas. I knew he was going to be a good football player, but he's even exceeding my expectations. He's stepping up whenever the opportunity has been provided for him.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports