AFC West

Sam McDowell: How a Patrick Mahomes message and these offensive changes sparked Chiefs’ turnaround

LAS VEGAS — Two weeks after the Cincinnati Bengals stunned the Chiefs in an AFC championship game a couple of seasons ago, Patrick Mahomes got an invitation. It came from friends. The occasion? A Super Bowl party. “I’m like, ‘Naw, I’m barely going to be able to watch it,’ ” he said. Mahomes stayed home with his wife, Brittany, instead, though he did put the game on the TV. Couldn’t help it. “I’m a fan of football,” he said. But he paced in and out of the room, hardly able to stomach it. That’s the part of the story he shared. The part he didn’t: More than a week earlier, he had already begun h…