The world has seen a polar bear ride a tricycle, and that was before this bizarre 2020 arrived. So we shouldn't be surprised by anything anymore, and yet here is Patrick Mahomes, fully healthy against one of the league's worst pass defenses, and he's struggling.
Football is a wild sport, and for so long the proof included Mahomes' apparent mastery of a craft that cannot be mastered.
This time, for one afternoon, the proof was in the game's best player appearing hesitant and then mediocre and then downright bad.
Mahomes, the Chiefs' superstar quarterback and Super Bowl MVP, led a late go-ahead touchdown drive, because that's what he does, and the Chiefs beat the Atlanta Falcons 17-14 Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium, because that's what they do, but the entire affair had the look of some ugly.
The Super Bowl favorites shouldn't need an overmatched opponent to miss a 39-yard field goal at the end in order to win a game.
"Bad day for the offense," Mahomes said. "Starting with me."
Mahomes is often humble with these things, deflecting credit after touchdowns and embracing blame after struggles. But not here.
A week after the Chiefs' most impressive win, in New Orleans against the Saints, came their least impressive win over a team that's probably better than it's 4-11 record ... but not this much better.
Mahomes claimed mistakes on protection calls, and checking out of plays that may have worked and into plays that didn't. We could also see his discomfort in the pocket, hesitation with decision-making and some throws that were simply inaccurate.
He completed 24 of 44 passes for 278 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Passer rating is an imperfect statistic, but this is just the third time in 45 regular-season starts since he became the Chiefs' starting QB that Mahomes has been under 80.
Mahomes' numbers — and the game's outcome, almost certainly — would be significantly different if Atlanta's A.J. Terrell had finished a difficult but catchable end-zone interception against Tyreek Hill in the fourth quarter.
The interception the Falcons did secure Sunday was perhaps the worst of Mahomes' fabulous career. Or, more descriptively, the first that left you wondering how he didn't see the linebacker sitting in zone coverage at the goal line, and why he made the decision to throw the ball where he did.
"We just weren't as sharp as we need to be," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. "I've got to go back and look at the plays. Make sure we're dialing up the right things and then executing, or at least dial them up in the right order and go from there. I've told you before, I'm going to look at what I did and what we set up for the players and then we'll look at what the players can do to get better."
This is not about expecting Mahomes and the Chiefs to always be as good as they were in the first half against the Baltimore Ravens, for instance, or in so many memorable spots against the Miami Dolphins, Saints and others.
Those flashes of brilliance will come. These guys are too talented for anything less, and they put too much stress on defenses to not expect some highlights. We saw that against the Falcons, even, with a 75-yard touchdown drive that ended with a ruthless pass to Demarcus Robinson for the go-ahead score.
That's not the point. Reid repeated the NFL truism that winning at this level is hard, and he's right, to an extent. Winning is hard for normal teams, and regardless of context victories should be celebrated.
The Chiefs are not a normal team. Getting to the Chiefs' level is hard, and once there the wins should not be taken for granted. But they shouldn't come like this, either.
The defense — often maligned by fans, even when the performance doesn't deserve it — saved the Chiefs from what would have been an embarrassing loss. Chris Jones and Frank Clark applied consistent pressure and critical sacks. Willie Gay and Darius Harris rose to the moment when injuries had decimated the team's linebacker corps.
They forced a fumble in the red zone and recovered the ball and responded time and time again when the offense's ineffectiveness required the defense's best. With anything less, the conversation around the Chiefs this week would be much different, the concerns much bigger.
But even with all that, one of the most talented offenses in NFL history just managed 17 points, four punts and two interceptions in nine possessions against one of the league's worst pass defenses.
The NFL's margins can be thin, and it can sometimes feel like any Chiefs possession that ends with less than a touchdown on a behind-the-back pass while Mahomes teaches a ballroom dancing class is viewed as a failure.
The Chiefs are not perfect, and will not ever be. But they are closer than any other team in the league and can win another Super Bowl by simply playing to their own level. Their ambitions are about more than beating the Falcons, and more than securing the AFC's only first-round bye for the playoffs.
They know their performance on this day wasn't enough. They've self-corrected plenty of times before, enough to believe they will again.
But a year ago at this time the Chiefs were better than this. There's a gap to close. We are three weeks from the next time the Chiefs will be tested in a game that matters, and three games from them achieving the goal they've earned.
Three weeks from knowing whether this game on Sunday was a one-off, or a foreshadowing.
