Taking the Ball Out of Mahomes' Hands

 I find it interesting how many Kansas City Chiefs fans and others are griping about "taking the ball out of Patrick Mahomes' hands" at the end of the Chiefs' loss last night. Let's not let the facts and game situation get in the way of this argument, shall we?

3:14 to play, ball at KC 25: Mahomes passes to Byron Pringle for 23 yards. The ball is at the Baltimore 48. In one pass, the Chiefs have already moved the ball to midfield with more than two minutes left to play. And, keep in mind that the Chiefs' defense had not truly stopped the Ravens all night--that the Ravens stopped themselves with their two turnovers earlier in the game.

2:35 to play, ball at KC 48: Mahomes passes to Travis Kelce for 13 yards. At Baltimore 39 at the two-minute warning. So, the Chiefs are in long field goal range already at the 2:00 mark, meaning that they are in serious danger of scoring too quickly and thus giving the ball back to Baltimore, who has one timeout left.

2:00 to play, ball at Baltimore 39: Mahomes hits Kelce for seven yard gain, putting the ball at the Baltimore 32 yard line. Now the Chiefs are in range for Harrison Butker and a winning field goal.

1:25 to play, ball at Baltimore 32: Mahomes hands off to Clyde Edwards-Helaire who fumbles. Baltimore recovers. The replay shows that Edwards-Helaire never did get the ball tucked away. However, is that "taking the ball out of Mahomes' hands" or is it the prudent play call, given the desire to position for a winning FG while keeping the ball away from Lamar Jackson and the Ravens' offense?

In sum, the call was the right one--the handoff between quarterback and running back wasn't executed properly and, once again, we see the tight margin between winning, and losing, in the National Football League.