Patrick Mahomes: 'Worst Playoff Football I’ve Played' Was in Chiefs' Loss to Bengals

Many called Patrick Mahomes' dreadful second-half performance in the 2022 AFC Championship Game the worst stretch of football of his career.

Mahomes would agree.

"That second half I played, I didn't play really good football at all. Probably my worst playoff football I've played was the second half of the game. So I'm just trying to use that as a learning thing that whenever I'm struggling or a team's struggling, just find a way to get positive plays, because when you have a lead like that, you don't want to lose that lead. We played such a great first half, even if we weren't getting what we wanted in the second half, I have to get better at taking what's there to try to get some points on the board, come away and get to the Super Bowl."

After a nearly flawless first half saw Mahomes throw for three touchdowns and carry the Chiefs to a 21-10 halftime lead, the wheels fell off after halftime. Mahomes threw two interceptions and the Chiefs punted four times, allowing Cincinnati to get back in the game before earning a 27-24 win.

ESPN's QBR metric gave Mahomes a 98.0 grade (out of 100) for the first half and a 1.2 grade in the second half, the largest half-over-half gap in the metric's history (since 2006).

As far as Mahomes' postseason performance goes, the only thing that somewhat measures up is his disappointing Super Bowl LV outing against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In that instance, at least Mahomes could partially blame injuries to himself and the Chiefs offensive line.

It's clear the blown lead against the Bengals will stick in his mind a little longer.