Patrick Mahomes’ high ankle sprain caused him a lot of pain during the AFC Championship Game, but that didn’t stop the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback from making a gutsy scramble to set up the game-winning field goal.
“People don’t realize how hurt he was,” Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said, according to ESPN’s Adam Teicher. “We all saw the injury. High ankles are terrible injuries, and sometimes guys miss two, three weeks, and he was out there and running for a first down and (made) a big play in the game that got us in field-goal range.”
Mahomes’ late five-yard run drew an unnecessary roughness penalty from Bengals pass-rusher Joseph Ossai, which set up the winning kick. Although the Chiefs quarterback admitted his ankle “definitely didn’t feel good,” he credited the training staff for getting him ready to play after he suffered the injury a week prior.
“They got me close as they could to 100%,” Mahomes said. “Then I just battled through, and I’ll have a few more weeks to get it ready (for the Super Bowl).”
He added: “I just tried to do whatever I could to win, and, obviously, there were times where you could see that it wouldn’t let me do what I wanted to. But I was able to do enough on that last play to get the first down and get myself out of bounds and try to give (kicker Harrison Butker) the chance to win.”
Mahomes finished the game with 29 completions on 43 attempts for 326 yards, a pair of touchdowns, and no interceptions. The 27-year-old also had three carries for eight yards and a fumble, which aggravated his injury.
“I think the worst one was when I fumbled,” Mahomes said. “I tried to pick it up, and that was probably the worst I tweaked it during the game.”
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