For almost a decade now, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has developed a reputation as a magic man. A gunslinging escape artist who could make throws, evade pressure and raise his game to a level that prompts perplexed fans to simply ask, "How?!" in the same way on-lookers would react to a street magician finding the card you picked out of the deck by pulling it out of your pocket.
While one kind of magician does his work on a sidewalk, or if he's really made it, a stage, Mahomes saves his work for the gridiron, with thousands of observers being left slack-jawed by his sorcery in the stadium, and millions of others in a similar state in the comfort of their home or local sports bar. But regardless, when you're the best of the best at what you do, you're inevitably going to be compared to the man who is arguably the greatest and most well-known illusionist to ever live.
“Patrick is still Patrick. Let’s call him Houdini,” Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans told reporters on Wednesday. “He finds a way to make plays all over the field. That’s why this team has always been a threat. That’s why their games are always close because of Patrick and his capabilities of extending plays... Although it may seem like they’re scrambled plays, they’re connected and coordinated in where they’re finishing, and Patrick knows the spots. He can run the football and convert third downs in those critical moments as well."
This statement by DeMeco Ryans raises two very important questions that I'll be looking to answer over the next handful of paragraphs. First, we have to decide whether this version of Patrick Mahomes is still the very same version of Mahomes that has reigned over the AFC since his first season as a starting quarterback in 2018? And second, we need to determine whether the Houston Texans defense may be Mahomes' Dai Vernon.
We'll get to Dai Vernon in just a moment. But first, let me attempt to answer that first question I posed up above.
Is this the same Patrick Mahomes?
So I want to be extremely cautious moving forward, if only because we fell into this very same trap with Tom Brady about a decade ago. Every once in a while in the mid-10's, Brady and the Patriots would hit a little bit of a lull that would make the sports media machine lose its collective mind as it pondered whether the Patriots dynasty was finally dying out.
Until the bitter end -- a Wild Card game against the Tennessee Titans in January 2020 -- the Patriots didn't die. In fact, despite all of these concerns that seemed somewhat legitimate at the time, due to the age of both Brady and Bill Belichick, the Patriots won three Super Bowl titles between 2015 and 2019.
Now sure, there are signs that point to the 2025 version of Patrick Mahomes not being quite as sharp as previous versions. Mahomes' bad throw percentage (18.6%) is at its highest since 2021, and his on-target throw percentage (74.2%) is below 75% for the first time in his career. He's on pace to finish the season with his first sub-65% completition percentage season and a career-high in sacks.
But it's not just those numbers that paint the picture of a sub-standard Patrick Mahomes season. It's felt like after coming through in the clutch every time the Chiefs needed him throughout the 2024 season, Mahomes just hasn't been as sharp in crunchtime this year. Evidence of this: Kansas City's record in one-score games in 2024 was 12-0. This year, it's 1-6.
Personally, I'd lean toward the truth being somewhere in the middle. As brilliant as Mahomes is and has been since 2018, going 12-0 in one-score games was an aberration. And it may be equally wonky that he and the Chiefs have been so bad in tight games this year. For Chiefs fans, the question now becomes, Can this begin to even out against the best defense in the NFL?
Can the Texans get one over on Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs?
In addition to being a world-class escapist, Harry Houdini also had a knack for cracking the illusions that others performed. Specifically, Houdini claimed that if he saw the same card trick three times in a row, he could figure out how it was done.
That was until he met Dai Vernon.
As the story goes, Vernon performed the Ambitious Card trick for Houdini seven times before Houdini's wife had to step in and force Harry to realize he had been fooled. From that day forward, Dai Vernon advertised himself as The Man Who Fooled Houdini.
Now obviously, the Chiefs have already been 'fooled' six times this season. Opposing defenses have gotten the better of Mahomes plenty throughout his career, but this Sunday night, the Texans have a chance to do something similar to what Dai Vernon did to Houdini 103 years ago.
With a win over Kansas City, the Texans would move one step closer to scratching and clawing their way back into the Playoff picture while simultaneously (likely) knocking the Chiefs out of the postseason. But beyond that, Houston could make a statement on Sunday night by not just defeating Kansas City, but dominating Mahomes and the Chiefs with a defensive effort that Mahomes himself knows they're capable of.
“You’ve got to match their intensity,” Patrick Mahomes told reporters on Wednesday, per Jared Sapp of Arrowhead Pride. “I think that’s the biggest thing. Obviously the D-line’s good. The linebackers are good, and the DBs are good. But I think what makes them who they are is how hard they play. Every single snap they’re flying around and they’re trying to make plays happen. They’re trying to intercept the football. They’re trying to knock the football out. They’re trying to make big hits. So, we’ve got to match that intensity — as an offense and as a team — in order to go out there and get a win.”
The Texans enter Sunday's game as one of the top five defenses in the NFL in points allowed, takeaways, sacks and 3rd down conversions.