News » Patrick Mahomes had just thrown six touchdown passes

in a record-setting performance against the Steelers Harrison Butker Jersey , one that gave the Chiefs a big road win and may have stamped them as the AFC’s top team, when someone asked him how he planned to celebrate his birthday.Mahomes said he planned to watch film of the San Francisco 49ers.If that was merely the politically correct answer, though, and the 23-year-old first-year starter planned to hit the town, he should have no shortage of Chiefs fans willing to buy him drinks.They’ll probably still be celebrating St. Patrick’s big day.“I don’t think that you could expect more from anyone,” said Chris Conley, one of five different receivers to catch a TD pass.“He’s handled the times where he’s made the plays really well. He’s handled the times where he hasn’t. That speaks volumes.”To be frank, there haven’t been many times where he hasn’t made the plays.Mahomes was so dynamic in a Week 17 win at Denver last season that the Chiefs traded away Pro Bowl quarterback Alex Smith and gave Mahomes the starting job.Then he threw four TD passes without a pick in a near-flawless performance in a road win over the AFC West-rival Chargers to open the season.But his performance in Pittsburgh, where the Chiefs hadn’t won a game since 1986, was the kind of transcendent display that Chiefs fans have been pining for since Len Dawson was taking snaps.Mahomes was 23 of 28 for 326 yards, which means he threw more touchdown passes than incompletions. He made all the right checks, scrambled when the opportunity presented itself, and kept his poise when the Chiefs squandered a 21-point first-quarter lead by engineering a near-flawless second half.“Everybody knew how strong of an arm he has,” Steelers cornerback Mike Hilton said, “and he was making some decent throws, and his playmakers made plays.”Yes, it helps to have a dizzying array of talent surrounding him.Kareem Hunt ran for 75 yards to provide just enough offensive balance. Travis Kelce had seven catches for 109 yards and two scores Daniel Sorensen Color Rush Jersey , and Sammy Watkins had six catches for 100 yards, lest anybody worry after their quiet openers against the Chargers.Tyreek Hill added five catches for 90 yards, all in the second half, with another touchdown to punctuate his typically stellar outing.Still, it takes the quarterback to deliver them the ball.“There’ll be games where teams try and take away one or two guys and that’s the good thing about this team is that no one really cares about who is getting the shine,” Mahomes said, after spending a hefty amount of time praising his teammates. “Everybody just wants to win.”Nobody more so than Mahomes, whose 10 touchdown passes through the first two weeks of the season broke the NFL record of nine shared by Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and Charley Johnson.Those touchdown passes have gone to seven different receivers, including fullback Anthony Sherman, which matches the number of guys that caught TD passes all last season.And those six TD tosses against the Steelers matched Dawson’s 54-year-old franchise record for a single game.“It just speaks to the weapons that we have on offense. They can’t stop everybody,” Mahomes said, “so for me, it’s just about getting it to the guy that has the man-to-man coverage or has the open area. Those guys were getting open. The offensive line was blocking great. It was making my job easy.”Perhaps the only downside to so much success is that the expectations surrounding Mahomes, which were already soaring in training camp, have soared to an almost impossible level.One sports talk radio host wondered Monday whether Mahomes will break Manning’s record for TD passes in a single season. He’s on pace for an absurd 80 of them, and while nobody expects him to maintain such a pace Kendall Fuller Color Rush Jersey , the reality is he needs to average just 3.2 per game to top the record of 55.Then there are the expectations for the Chiefs. They’ve already beaten two teams that were thought to be playoff contenders, on the road no less, and done so in fairly convincing fashion.It’s hardly surprising that Chiefs coach Andy Reid tried to keep everything in perspective when he met with reporters on Monday. But that job is becoming more difficult each week.“The key to this thing is that you’re growing, that you keep growing. The more that these defensive coordinators have to study it, you keep answering that bell, so that’s his challenge right now,” Reid said. “Is everything going to be roses? No. But he’s seeing things right now and doing a nice job.”___ KANSAS CITY, Mo. 鈥?The Kansas City Chiefs headed into training camp in late July content with a pair of veterans in Daniel Sorensen and Eric Berry as their starting safeties.Now, there’s a good chance neither will start in their season opener Sunday.Sorensen broke a bone in his lower leg during training camp and had surgery about a month ago, and is starting the season on injured reserve. Berry has been dealing with a heel injury that not only kept him out most of training camp but sidelined him during practice on Wednesday.The exact nature of his injury hasn’t been disclosed, but Chiefs trainer Rick Burkholder put a positive spin on it Wednesday by saying the five-time Pro Bowl selection is “getting better every day.”“We’ll see if he can practice and we’ll just go from there,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “I want to see what he’s got, if and when he does that. But then I’ll make the decision, what I see there.”Berry may be the only player on the entire Chiefs roster who could conceivably play without having practiced in a month. But even for him, Reid conceded, that would be asking a bit much, especially with the season opener coming on the road against Philip Rivers and the Los Angeles Chargers.“If he doesn’t practice today https://www.thechiefsfanshop.com/Anthony-Hitchens-Jersey , which he’s not, we go with the next man up and they roll. That’s how we go,” Reid said. “We’re used to that here, just philosophically, at all positions.”So instead of having a pair of veteran starters in Sorensen and Berry, the Chiefs are poised to start Ron Parker 鈥?who was cut by the Falcons last week and re-signed with Kansas City over the weekend 鈥?and either Eric Murray or fourth-round draft pick Armani Watts.Parker spent the past four seasons with the Chiefs before signing with Atlanta as a free agent, so he’s at least familiar with defensive coordinator Bob Sutton’s scheme. But he admitted it’s a challenge to get up to speed in such a compressed timeframe for a division rival.“I’m just preparing myself like I do any other time. Whatever the coaches ask, whatever they need,” he said. “I feel like especially being in Bob’s system and knowing what’s going on, that’s going to maximize my abilities. That’s the good thing coming back to Kansas City.”Parker played well his first three seasons with the Chiefs but appeared to take a step back last year, and that’s part of why he was released. He said a high ankle injury sustained in training camp played a part in that, and that he’s glad to begin a season healthy again.He just hopes it will be with Berry by his side.“I’ve been playing with Eric,” Parker said, “so I can just look over there and I don’t have to say a thing. We know what each other is doing. With the other guys, we have to communicate with each other, of course. But everything is coming together.”Murray has appeared in 30 games over his first two seasons, starting twice Chad Henne Jersey , so he at least lends a bit of experience to the defensive backfield. Watts showed flashes in the preseason 鈥?he picked off two passes in the finale against Green Bay 鈥?but hasn’t been in the regular-season fire.It speaks volumes that Parker, who just rejoined the team, already has been peppered with questions by the rest of the young guys in the defensive backs room.“It’s difficult,” he said, “but the trust those guys have in me, and the trust I have in those guys, everything will take care of itself. We’ll handle our business.”NOTES: WR Byron Pringle, who hurt his hamstring in the Chiefs’ preseason finale and was put on IR, had an MRI exam that also revealed a hernia. Burkholder said the rookie underwent surgery Tuesday. “He has an extended recovery ahead of him, and in the meantime the hamstring will heal,” Burkholder said. … Burkholder said Sorensen continues to do rehab work in the pool, but it will be a couple more weeks before the Chiefs have a timetable for his return. “He’s where he’s supposed to be right now,” Burkholder said.