In Sunday’s road win, KC built a 20-6 lead over the struggling Panthers, only to watch Bryce Young lead a ferocious comeback. The Panthers tied it at 27 with 1:46 to go — way too much time for Mahomes.

The Chiefs QB calmly led KC into scoring range. After converting a third-and-2 pass to DeAndre Hopkins that kept the drive alive, Mahomes scrambled, eschewing the opportunity to go out of bounds, cut downfield and raced 33 yards into field goal range. The QB may not be the most dynamic runner, but no one uses his legs in bigger moments than the three-time Super Bowl MVP.

“It’s not like I plan things like that in advance,” Mahomes said of his scammers. “It’s just when it counts and you have to make plays, I feel like I go out there and make the play, and that’s why I feel like sometimes it happens a little bit later in games.

“You don’t want to slide. You have to put your body out there knowing you can take hits and things like that, but we were able to make some big runs and some big moments.”

Avoiding the collapse against Carolina pushed Mahomes’ career record to 59-4 in his career while holding a 14-point lead at any point in the game, including playoffs (last loss: 2021 AFC Championship Game vs. Bengals).