Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes celebrates a touchdown in the fourth quarter against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium on Oct. 23, 2022 in Santa Clara, Calif.Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Patrick Mahomes threw for 423 yards and three touchdowns to rally Kansas City back from another double-digit deficit in a 44-23 victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
Mahomes got off to a rough start in this Super Bowl rematch with his early interception putting Kansas City (5-2) in a 10-0 hole but that once again proved to be no problem as he led KC to touchdowns on six of the next seven drives.
Mecole Hardman scored on two TD runs and an 8-yard catch, Justin Watson caught a 4-yard TD and JuJu Smith-Schuster finished it off with a 45 yard catch and run. Clyde Edwards-Helaire also scored on a 16-yard run.
The comeback improved Kansas City to 13-9 with Mahomes when falling behind by at least 10 points with the most memorable coming in a Super Bowl win over the 49ers (3-4) following the 2019 season.
The Niners dropped back-to-back games despite getting a boost from the addition this week of running back Christian McCaffrey, who had 62 yards on 10 scrimmage touches in his San Francisco debut.
But San Francisco settled for three field goals and came up empty on another chance when Jimmy Garoppolo threw an interception at the goal-line before Kansas City ran away with it in the second half.
Kansas City took control with back-to-back touchdown drives to start the second half. They started the opening drive of the third quarter at the San Francisco 33 following a 48-yard kick return by Isiah Pacheco and a personal foul on Jauan Jennings. Edwards-Helaire scored three players later to make it 21-13.
Kansas City made it 28-13 when Mahomes found Watson for the TD one play after Jerick McKinnon gained 34 yards on a third-and-20 screen pass.
Mahomes then answered a TD pass from Garoppolo to George Kittle by hitting Marquez Valdes-Scantling on a 57-yard pass on third-and-11 to set up Hardman’s second TD run.
Mahomes found Smith-Schuster on another third down play for the final TD.