Why this play fired up Patrick Mahomes — and turned the game in the Chiefs’ favor

Yes, after suffering two more interceptions on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium, Patrick Mahomes is tied for the most in the NFL with eight.

Never mind that one of those Sunday was on a deflection and the other when receiver Xavier Worthy fell: Mahomes now has more giveaways than touchdown passes (six), and is quite on pace to break his career single-season record of 14.

Moreover, his quarterback rating of 44.4 was the lowest in any of his 120 NFL starts, including 18 postseason games.

So much for raw and misleading data.

Because the most telling image of the Chiefs’ 28-18 win over the 49ers to improve to 6-0 — the only remaining undefeated team in the NFL — is that of the flamed-on Mahomes looking down on would-be San Francisco tackler Malik Mustapha in the end zone after the touchdown that gave the Chiefs a 21-12 lead just as they’d been fading.

Maybe it wasn’t quite a reincarnation of the iconic Muhammad Ali pose over a downed Sonny Liston in their 1965 heavyweight title fight.

But Mahomes’ body language was reminiscent of the stance, as he was in a certain altered state between frustration over the interceptions and an apparent cheap shot to his throat taken by 49ers defensive lineman Maliek Collins — a Center High graduate.

And that as much as anything else stoked the Chiefs to another affirmation of their dominance of the 49ers — 5-0 in the Mahomes Era, including two Super Bowl wins.

And it reiterated why they’re on trajectory for an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl triumph despite their blemishes.

“I think Pat just kind of took it in his own hands in a few different ways,” tight end Travis Kelce said. “And what’s why we love him.”

To be sure, as ever, the Chiefs won this game for a lot of reasons on the way to extending coach Andy Reid’s record after a bye week to 22-4.

In their 12th straight overall win, that included three interceptions by a defense that had mustered only two in the first five games.

And it featured Mecole Hardman’s uncanny knack for scalding the 49ers — in this case with a 20-yard touchdown run and a 55-yard punt return — and Kareem Hunt grinding for 78 yards and two touchdowns.

But the pulse of it again emanated from the indomitable Mahomes.

He’s demonstrated that umpteen times in ways that extend infinitely beyond his passing stats — a category affected by a pedestrian group last season and a distressing rash of injuries this season: Hollywood Brown, Rashee Rice and, now, JuJu Smith-Schuster, who had 7 catches for 130 yards in his last start.

It comes from an immeasurable wellspring.

The sort of stuff that makes Mahomes bristle and flourish when most might wilt — as some might have when his second interception of the day was punctuated by Collins jamming him in the throat without penalty.

Afterward, Mahomes began to say he hoped Collins didn’t do it on purpose. But then he audibled along the way to say, “I don’t think he really intentionally tried to hit me in the throat. I think he was trying to just push in the chest there, and he’s taller than me.”

Whatever benefit of the doubt Mahomes was offering publicly, though, there was little doubt he was furious after the play.

And, as usual, able to convert that to energy.

“I don’t know if I was fired up from that,” he said, “or fired up I threw my second pick.”

That showed up two drives later, when Mahomes uncorked a 33-yard mad dash down the 49er sideline to give the Chiefs first-and-goal at the San Francisco 4.

On what became the team’s longest run of the season, Mahomes initially figured he’d just get the first down but re-calibrated when a fresh opening presented itself.

Then he nearly made another move as Hardman was blocking and yelling for Mahomes to cut back.

“I’ll save that for the playoffs …” Mahomes said. “Right now, I’m just going to continue to run out of bounds.”

Wellllll, sometimes, anyway.

Because it sure looked like he was seeking contact up the middle three plays later on his 1-yard touchdown run on fourth down.

And it sure looked like he wanted to make a statement with that.

Never mind that he self-deprecatingly downplayed it: He wasn’t seeking contact or trying to blast Mustapha, he said, just lowering his shoulder to brace himself.

“That ‘Dad Bod,’ man, just had enough weight on me where he went down,” Mahomes said, smiling and adding, “I was trying to absorb (the hit) and get in the end zone. And (it) just ended up looking good for me.”

The last time Mahomes lowered his shoulder that way, he said, was against Iowa State when he was at Texas Tech — a 2016 game in which he correctly remembered the Red Raiders lost by 56 points (66-10) and he suffered an AC joint sprain in his shoulder.

“So I’ve stayed away from that,” he said.

Maybe from precisely that move. But he seldom shrinks from contact — a trait more admirable than advisable that Mahomes relished.

“You’re not going to stop that,” Reid said after Mahomes barged into a goal-line scrum in the opener against the Ravens.

Mahomes amplified Sunday’s collision with a few words for Mustapha that Mahomes said he couldn’t remember: “I think I just said, ‘I hope I scored a touchdown.’ I got pretty hyped up there. … But I don’t remember exactly what I said.”

The gist of it, though, was clear: It later prompted Mustapha to acknowledge the humbling in a well-known social media meme: “I ain’t gonna lie I’m getting cooked.”

That play was part of an evident ripple effect on a Chiefs team for which Mahomes sets the tone on both sides of the ball.

“We know Pat’s got the sauce, man,” said linebacker Drue Tranquill, adding, “The one I take away is on the goal line. You can’t underestimate the toughness of the guy, watching him run over that cat.

“I mean, that cat had two or three big hits … He’s a dog, and then Pat runs him over. And I think it just speaks to the toughness of our team.”

And it spoke to what Chiefs guard Trey Smith thinks about in Mahomes:

“Just greatness,” he said.

Even when it’s not apparent in the box score.

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