Patrick Mahomes gave his Chiefs teammates a message after his INT. How it won the game

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes initially looked to his left, before he turned back right and fired a pass about as quickly as he could throw it.

And, well, uh oh.

Three offensive plays into the game, just two dropbacks, he was picked.

But as the 49ers’ defense marched toward the end zone for a team celebration — a lesson not yet learned, apparently — Mahomes knew he’d spotted something.

The 49ers would turn that interception into a touchdown and a 10-point lead. What if you were to learn it was the most impactful play of the game?

For the Chiefs.

Because as the 49ers were about to become the third team this season to build a double-digit lead against the Chiefs only to still lose the game, Mahomes knew he had ‘em.

He won’t say it that strongly, with that much certainty in retrospect, but the interception told a story, and it allowed Mahomes to author the remainder of a 44-23 win that showcased his best outing since Tyreek Hill left town.

Mahomes threw for a season-best 423 yards, and he had three touchdowns.

But it started with that pick. In its aftermath, Mahomes gathered some teammates on the sideline and basically outlined the gist of the San Francisco game plan: The 49ers were in a cover-4 shell but driving their safeties hard toward the line of scrimmage to disrupt the intermediate routes. They hoped their defensive line could put enough pressure on him to not worry about the back end.

But they forgot one thing: What happens when the guy on the other side of the field knows your plan? Then what?

You get got.

An example, you say? Let’s drill in on a third-down snap in the fourth quarter. It’s important to note this is just one example in a series of them, but it’s perhaps the most notable. The 49ers had trimmed a two-possession lead to just five points, and the Chiefs stared at a 3rd-and-11 snap from their 19-yard line with 13 minutes to go. An incompletion, and the 49ers would take the ball with the chance to take the lead along with it.

About an hour earlier, wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling informed Mahomes that the cornerback often defending him, Charvarius Ward, the former Chief, was biting to cut down the out route, same as his teammates in the secondary.

“Hey, we get this opportunity again,” Valdes-Scantling told Mahomes, “I’m gonna run right by him.”

That took care of one half of the field. The other side: Mahomes’ memory reverted back to that interception three quarters earlier. One of the safeties would charge toward receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, Mahomes accurately anticipated, and Mecole Hardman would take away the other safety by jetting across the middle. Check. And check.

That meant Valdes-Scantling would be left alone with Ward, in a foot-race, with Ward biting on an underneath route instead.

They got him.

The play went for 57 yards, and the Chiefs would score the final 16 points of the game. Game over.

“The way their safeties were playing — cover-4 — I knew that they were going to drive JuJu, who was the primary on the other side,” Mahomes said. “So once I saw Mecole kind of clear out the middle, (Valdes-Scantling) was one-on-one. I just put it out there.”

Over and over again, the Chiefs turned their worst play of the day — a turnover — into their most fruitful.

With perception from the quarterback. And with communication from all involved.

That’s the real takeaway from a 529-yard day against the league’s No. 1-ranked defense. Or what used to be the league’s No. 1-ranked defense. It’s more than a good day. It’s a sign of how they arrived here and perhaps where they’re headed.

As much a Mahomes-led summer program with his new wide receivers might’ve sped the timeline on their chemistry, nothing could test them like actual games. Like actual defenses. With actual adjustments required in return.

It was always going to be an element that would help define this Chiefs offense, particularly for a unit that sees more unscouted looks than perhaps any other in the league. How would they adjust in-game? Well, one of those adjustments just won them a game.

“That’s stuff you build throughout the season,” Mahomes said.

And in, shall we say, unconventional fashions.

Two days before the game, Mahomes, Smith-Schuster, Valdes-Scantling and tight end Travis Kelce hopped on their gaming systems to play Call of Duty: Warzone. Smith-Schuster told this story after the win Sunday, and there was a point to it.

He prolonged the anecdote to describe the intricacies of the video game — informing those of us non-gamers that all four of them were on the same team, talking strategy to one another through head-sets. They won, by the way. Three straight games.

“You could just tell the communication between all of us, the chemistry ... it kind of just led into this game. It kind of just showed on the field.” Smith-Schuster said, and then he left the room. But when he did, Mahomes stepped up, and as the two crossed paths, Smith-Schuster quipped, “You gotta tell them about Warzone.”

The Chiefs are 5-2 at the bye, despite facing what was anticipated as the league’s toughest schedule, with a one-game lead in the AFC West.

But a better development is what prompted the record. Let’s be honest here: They’ve won games this year in which they basically got by. They still left you wondering whether these new receivers would be the exact right fit. They lost a game in Indianapolis in which it appeared Mahomes trusted only one guy, and that’s the tight end who’s been at his side all along.

On Sunday, after months of talking about getting on the same page, that particular aspect brightened a road victory in a Super Bowl LIV rematch.

They didn’t win despite a quarterback and a new group of wide receivers still learning to play with one another.

They won because of it.