Patrick Mahomes just about got the better of Justin Herbert on Thursday but expects the Los Angeles Chargers to continue to push his Kansas City Chiefs all the way.
Both the Chiefs and the Chargers are tipped for Super Bowl contention this year in a highly talented AFC West.
Kansas City have won the division six years in a row, but the scale of their task this season was made clear in this meeting with the Chargers, who forced Mahomes to rally from a 17-7 deficit to win 27-24.
Herbert admirably battled a rib injury as he attempted to take down Mahomes, yet the former MVP delivered yet another comeback.
This was the 20th game of Mahomes' career – regular season or playoffs – in which he had been down by 10 points, and he has now converted 11 of those into wins.
Past turnarounds include the Super Bowl LIV success against the San Francisco 49ers when the Chiefs scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, as well as Herbert's NFL debut, when the Chargers lost in overtime early in the 2020 season.
"I think every game [against Herbert] is going to be a lot like this one," Mahomes told Amazon Prime Video.
"In the games I've played against him in the past, we've gone to overtime twice and it's been an end-of-game situation.
"It's going to be games like this, and hopefully I can find a ways to win them and our team can find a ways to win them, like we did today."
Mahomes is the only NFL quarterback with a winning record in games where he has trailed by double-digit points (minimum 20 starts), with Tom Brady next-best at 39-61 (.390).
"I want to go out there and win; I don't care how it looks," Mahomes added. "Tonight was very ugly.
"I'm sure it's not going to have a great film session tomorrow, but we found a way to get a win at the end of the day, and that's all I care about."