How Patrick Mahomes Feels About Chiefs As Underdog Vs. Bengals
Mahomes has never been a home underdog in the postseason
Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are set to enter uncharted territory in Sunday's AFC Championship Game against the visiting Cincinnati Bengals.
Mahomes and company currently are viewed as a home underdog for the contest, which would be the first-ever playoff game the Chiefs were not favored with the superstar behind center.
According to consensus data on the NESNBets.com live odds page, the Bengals were a 1-point road favorite as of Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET. The line has moved in the last few days after the Chiefs opened as a 1.5-point home favorite.
Now, it's fair to point out that professional bettors and the betting public likely are throwing down on the Bengals due to Mahomes' injured ankle. Professionals clearly don't believe the NFL MVP contender will be operating at 100% against an impressive Bengals defense. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and Mahomes have played it coy in their injury updates, though Mahomes came out immediately after Kansas City's divisional-round win against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday and said he would be good to go.
Mahomes was asked Wednesday if there's motivation given that he and the Chiefs likely will be underdogs for the conference title game despite the fact it's being held at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET.
"Yeah, every time I walk on that field I don't think I'm an underdog," Mahomes told reporters, per the team. "Especially when I walk onto Arrowhead's field.
"I just go in with the same mindset of we're going to have to play our best football to win," Mahomes continued. "We know we're playing a great football team that's beat us the last three times. So we have to learn from our mistakes in the past and be better in order to win against a great football team."
DraftKings Sportsbook revealed Wednesday that 82% of moneyline handle and 75% of moneyline tickets are on the Bengals to win straight up. Cincinnati also represents the vast majority of the spread money (79%) and spread bets (77%). That's rather notable given the Bengals were a 6-point road underdog in the divisional-round game against the Buffalo Bills.
In terms of his ankle injury, Mahomes expressed that he has been pleased with how it's progressed since it occurred on Kansas City's second offensive drive Saturday. Mahomes shared that he feels it has got better throughout the week with treatment and will continue to monitor it as he practices with the team.
