My coaches and my son's coaches pretty much had the same exact message about this and it is permanently etched into my brain...
"If the ball hits your hands... you HAVE to catch it. Dropping a football that hits your hands is 100% your fault."
There are proper techniques for your hands when catching that are very important, but the most important part of catching a football is your eyes. All catches have different degrees of difficulty... but it all comes down to watching the ball throughout the entire catching process.
A great way to SEE this as a real truth is to read about how Larry Fitzgerald learned to catch the ball so well. As I remember it, his dad was/is an eye doctor and he made Larry learn to use his eyes in a scientific way to insure he didn't drop any footballs. Larry swears by it to this day and he is literally living proof of it working.
Hand techniques are important too... but you have to use those with great coordination with your eyes.
So my boys and I have always screamed at each other with complete belief - "If the ball hits your hands... it's on you if you don't catch it."
QBs don't have perfect lanes to throw every pass. Some can adjust their throwing motions in almost unbelievable ways to throw the ball and hit your hands. If he manages to do that, it's your fault if you drop the ball. That's the rule WRs are taught and the good/great ones live by it and believe it. Nobody catches every pass... but it's rare to see the great ones drop a ball that hits their hands... hell, these days some of the best won't drop a ball that hits just one of their hands.
Those balls that that clown dropped last night were all 100% his fault. That's exactly how I SEE it.
Truth is... that's why many of the fastest and most athletic guys are forced to play defense. Their hand eye coordination sucks... and they can't catch for shit. They can defend though. Just remember that the next time you see a DB or Safety drop a sure interception when the ball hits him in his hands. If you listen carefully when you watch one of those plays happen... you'll hear me screaming way off in the distance - "That's why he plays defense!".
Agree with this but.... imo there were other factors at play too. The first was the Deroit D.
Aidan Hutchinson was putting incredible pressure on Mahomes on almost every passing play. The dude is a monster pass rusher who played an awesome game, despite the refs refusing to enforce the formation rules or call false starts. He forced Mahomes and the offense to scramble on a huge number of plays.
And, though the scrambling puts a lot of pressure on the defense, Detroit's secondary overall did a great job. Gave up the TD at the end of the first half but held the line the second half. This secondary was brilliantly rebuilt by Brad Holmes adding Cam Sutton, CJ Gardner Johnson, and Brian Branch, not to mention Emmanuel Moseley from SF who hasn't even played yet.
Mahomes can make off schedule plays better than anyone but as someone pointed out he can't always get the best angles or put balls on a receiver's fingertips when doing so. And the scramble game is a different game for the receivers, especially relatively inexperienced ones, when they don't know what the QB is doing, whether the ball is coming to them, when to look for it, or how or where it may arrive. Not the same as running a crisp route with the ball arriving on time at the break as planned. Kelce and Mahomes have had years of practice at this, but the young KC receivers haven't.
In sum I would give the D, especially Hutchinson, the credit for forcing Mahomes off schedule.