HENDERSON, Nev. — This is what they call a humble brag.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes II was asked Wednesday morning about his unorthodox running style that has nevertheless been increasingly effective in recent years.
After never rushing for more than 272 yards in any of his first four seasons, Mahomes has scrambled for 381, 358 and 389 yards in each of his last three years while picking up a combined 77 first downs.
In his three postseason games this year, Mahomes has rushed for 75 yards and four first downs.
Mahomes said he has analyzed his running style through technology.
“I think I’ve gotten better in my running form and gotten faster as I’ve been in the NFL,’’ Mahomes said Wednesday at the Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVIII press conference from the Westin Lakes Las Vegas Resort. “But it doesn’t look the prettiest. I think people think I’m slow. I think it’s kind of deceptive. Sometimes I think the defense takes bad angles because they think they’re going to catch me faster than they do. Maybe that’s the secret to my speed is I run not the way everybody else runs.”
The turnaround
The Chiefs didn’t look like a Super Bowl team Oct. 29, when they committed five turnovers in a 24-9 loss to the Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High. It was the first time the Chiefs had lost to Denver in eight years.
“It’s just the process,’’ Mahomes said. “Obviously we had some troubles throughout the season. Guys never hung their heads. Just continued to grind through and cause us to play our best football at the right time. Every season is different, and we continued to work in order to be great.”
Nor did the Chiefs look like they were on their way to capturing another AFC championship when they lost four of six after a bye week to fall to 9-6. Chiefs coach Andy Reid said the biggest problem was what everybody else witnessed.
“We had some drops,’’ Reid said at his Super Bowl press conference Wednesday. “We were getting better but we were a play away. And it seemed like it came down to that catch three or four games.
“And in some cases [with] guys I had seen make the play before that weren’t doing it at that particular time but I knew they had the potential to make it.
“Those guys ended up picking it up and doing well in this stretch here. And then we had a young guy, Rice. Rashee’s game was getting better every week. And that’s such a key ingredient when you have a [Travis] Kelce on the other side.’’
Swift update
We know Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is not letting his uber-famous girlfriend distract him from his Super Bowl LVIII preparations. We know this because as of Wednesday morning, Kelce wasn’t completely sure where Taylor Swift was performing on the international portion of her Eras Tour. He added she still hasn’t committed to making the trip to Las Vegas to see the big game on Sunday.
“No, she hasn’t,’’ Kelce said. “She’s focused on entertaining the crowd out in, I think it’s Singapore right now? Or I think that’s in a few weeks. I know she’s out in Japan, Tokyo maybe. She’s working on entertaining them, making sure she’s ready for her performances and everything, but the Super Bowl we’ll worry about if she can make it.”
Indeed, Swift is performing Wednesday through Saturday in Tokyo. She is to perform in Melbourne, Australia the next weekend; Sydney the following weekend, Feb. 23-25; and then Singapore March 2-4. Then it’s Paris, Stockholm, Lisbon and on she goes.
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