Despite their status as the NFL’s reigning Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs are two-point underdogs to the San Francisco 49ers ahead of next week’s battle for the Lombardi Trophy. If Patrick Mahomes wants to win his third Super Bowl trophy in five seasons, he’ll have to manage an upset.
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs Are Super Bowl Underdogs
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Mahomes said the Chiefs will use the Super Bowl point spread as a motivational tool ahead of their matchup against the 49ers.
“We just haven’t had that aspect, so it kind of lit fire under some guys, including myself,” Mahomes said. “At the end of the day, it’s playoff games. You want to win.
“This is what you play for, and I think that fire would have been — regardless of if we were an underdog or not — that fire would have been lit because this is the time of year that you work for and you put in those hard practices for.”
Despite Mahomes’ comments, Kansas City has actually been an underdog in recent playoff games.
Assuming the two-point line holds, the Chiefs will become just the fourth NFL team to close as underdogs in back-to-back Super Bowl appearances, per Evan Abrams of Action Network. The 1974-75 Minnesota Vikings and the 1992-94 Buffalo Bills lost a combined five straight Super Bowls as underdogs, while the 2014-15 Seattle Seahawks went 1-1.
As Nick Wright of Fox Sports pointed out, Mahomes — already one of the greatest players in NFL history — has been an underdog in five of his last six playoff games. The Chiefs were 4.5-point favorites against the Miami Dolphins in this year’s Wild Card Round but were projected to lose every other contest.
“I think we have that mindset that if we’re going to practice the way we do, we’re going to work the way we work, we’re not going to let it slide by, we’re going to make sure we maximize our opportunity every time we’re out there,” Mahomes said.
Mahomes is the best underdog quarterback during the Super Bowl era. Per ESPN, Mahomes has gone 10-1-1 against the spread when not favored in his NFL career. He’s gone 9-3 in those games, and his .750 winning percentage also paces all QBs.
“We might not be the prettiest bunch, but we’re going to battle,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said of being Super Bowl underdogs. “I don’t think it bothers us. It is what it is.”
Kansas City has advanced to at least the AFC Championship Game every season since Mahomes became the club’s starter in 2018. Mahomes had never played an away playoff game until facing the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens in road matchups this year.
MORE: Nick Bosa Offers Scathing Criticism of Chiefs’ Offensive Line Ahead of Super Bowl 58
In three 2023-24 postseason games, Mahomes has completed 68% of his passes for 718 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions, posting an 88+ QBR in each matchup.
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