Andy Reid won't take anything away from Patrick Mahomes' season: 'One half away from going to the Super Bowl'

Reid won't consider this a 'down' year for Mahomes

Patrick Mahomes didn't have the MVP-type season the NFL has come to expect, even if the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback still put up impressive numbers throughout the year. Unfortunately for a team with Super Bowl expectations, the Chiefs came up short in their quest for a third consecutive Super Bowl -- in part because of the play of Mahomes. 

Mahomes went 8 of 18 for 55 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions for a 12.3 rating in the second half of Sunday's AFC Championship Game loss to the Cincinnati bengals, part of the Chiefs blowing a 21-10 halftime lead and having their seaosn come up a game short of where they wanted to go. 

Despite Mahomes not going to the Super Bowl, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid won't take anything away from his season. 

"I think he was one half away from going to his third Super Bowl in a row, and that's pretty impressive," Reid said. "You've been around this a long time as a lot of us have. That's pretty impressive and most of these teams that are getting this far have good quarterbacks. 

"So, that's just how it works, and we're fortunate to have him, and there's nobody looking at Pat Mahomes cross-eyed from our side. I would anticipate our fans feel the same way."

Mahomes completed 66.3% of his passes for 4,839 yards for 37 touchdowns this year -- yet he threw a career-high 13 interceptions. The 284.6 passing yards per game and 98.5 passer rating were the lowest of his career in a full season, and still found a way for the Chiefs to reach the AFC Championship Game. 

In the postseason, Mahomes completed 73% of his passes for 1,057 yards with 11 touchdown passes to three interceptions for a 118.8 passer rating. The 11 touchdown passes are tied for first in NFL history, which makes his second half of the AFC Championship Game all the more unexplainable. 

Reid will take the fall for Kansas City failing to advance to the Super Bowl, making sure the Chiefs will do the necessary things to correct the issues next year. 

"One of my jobs is to make sure everyone is put in the right position to do things and so you can always do a better job with that," Reid said. "If you feel like things aren't going your way as an offense, then you kind of give them things that the guys can go out and perform better. 

"When you look at these types of things, that's how you go about it, and each person does that and they stick together and hopefully you flip it around and get some positive gains. I'm not just sticking it on one person, it's a true team sport and we can all do our jobs a little bit better."