The Kansas City Chiefs survived a scare on Sunday, beating the Carolina Panthers 30-27. After a brutal loss to the Bills last week, Patrick Mahomes outdueled Bryce Young to clinch their 10th win.
The Panthers drove down the field in the fourth quarter to tie this game, with their quarterback showing significant improvements since his rookie season.
The three-time champion on the other sideline took note and heaped praise on the top pick. David Newton of ESPN transcribed the comments from Mahomes’ postgame press conference.
“I thought he played his tail off,” Mahomes said about Young. “Man throws a really good football. It’s funny, I think Texas Tech was the first one to offer him when he was in eighth grade and I was at Texas Tech, so I remember watching his highlight tapes then and knew he was going to be a great player.”
After a brutal rookie season and being benched this year, Young has improved. The Chiefs’ QB acknowledged the improvements as well.
“Obviously, he went to Bama and was the first draft pick, but I think it is been cool to see him bounce back these last few weeks and played some great football. I know he has it because I’ve seen it for a long time and he gave us a scare today.”
Chiefs fans can breathe easy after Bryce Young comeback
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) scrambles in the backfield against the Carolina Panthers during the second half at Bank of America Stadium.
The Chiefs were favored by over ten points coming into this game against a poor Panthers team. Carolina had won two straight games over the Saints and Giants before the bye. Their first win cost Dennis Allen his job and the second cost Daniel Jones his, so they were unexpected victories.
Despite the heavy underdog status, Bryce Young put on a performance to remember for Panthers fans.
The Chiefs have had offensive struggles this season but this first half was solid in that department. They put together four scoring drives in the first half but could not finish off two of them, so it was 20-9 at the half. While their defense did let up three field-goal drives, it was a comfortable lead.
The second half was more of the same for Kansas City.
Mahomes and the Chiefs offense had to punt on two consecutive fourth-quarter drives in this game.
That gave the Panthers the time to mount a comeback and tie the game with less than two minutes left. Spencer Strader came through at the end, kicking the game-winning field goal.
