KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The quarterback who has donned a yellow no-contact jersey for the past six weeks sprinted to the sideline, not in search of a reprieve but in search of the risk.

Patrick Mahomes could have stepped out of bounds on a third-quarter scramble, could have avoided contact altogether after clearing the first-down marker, but instead he sought the hit. Nay, he delivered it. He lowered his shoulder and planted Los Angeles Chargers cornerback Donte Jackson on his butt.

The point isn’t the toughness of the play.

It’s that Mahomes felt the need to make it.

It’s why he felt the need to make it.

The Chiefs failed to equal the demands of their quarterback in a 27-21 loss to the Chargers at Neo Quimica Arena in São Paulo, Brazil. And I don’t mean in terms of execution, because the truth is Mahomes wasn’t at his best for quite awhile either.

I mean in the most basic of requirements: Emotion. Intensity.

You know, their best effort.

It’s all head coach Andy Reid could talk about after the game — the Chiefs coming out flat for an opening quarter in which they were out-gained 145-33. He couldn’t distinguish a reason for it and expectedly took responsibility, sidestepping the bait when asked if Xavier Worthy’s first-series injury prompted it.

But whatever the excuse, it left this picture: The most prized possession in football — the health of Patrick Mahomes — decided to put his body on the line, and not for an extra yard or even an extra inch, but because it’s all he could think to do to ignite a little something on the sideline.

“Sometimes you just have to do something to jumpstart the team,” he said. “I was not in the mood to be running out of bounds. I wanted to do something to get us going.”

It would have been a nice story, except, uh, how is this the team in need of a jumpstart anyway?

Look, we all understand that a group that has played in three straight Super Bowls and five of the last six might have a little difficulty believing all games are created equally. But come on: This was opening night, a standalone prime-time game in a foreign country and in front of an energetic crowd, a game in which the NFL was quite clearly trying to set viewership records on a free-for-everyone YouTube broadcast, and a game against a division rival.

How can we be talking about a lack of emotion?

This team talked extensively about the bad taste left in its mouth from a Super Bowl embarrassment, and then decided it would like to chew on that feeling a little longer.

That truth, that bitterness, ought to cut more sharply than the Super Bowl shellacking. Teams have bad days. To open flat is without excuse, given the setting. And given nobody has more experience in these kinds of settings, you have to question the length of the aftermath.

By game’s end, a group without much emotion to open the night was all up in its feelings. Which, by the way, linebacker Drue Tranquill wasn’t wrong in what we all know he must have said to Chris Jones, even if he could have waited for a better spot to say it. Like, say, where the Chiefs looked eager to retreat — the locker room.

Jones tried to make a hero play on the Chargers’ final third-down conversion, stepping out of his assignment and out of his containment lane to rush the passer. L.A. quarterback Justin Herbert easily scrambled to the edge, the spot Jones vacated, for a first down. Game over. A fitting end, come to think of it.

The Chiefs didn’t need another hero player on Friday. They had one at quarterback.

They just needed a supporting cast to do its share, without hoping that quarterback would save the day. A basketball team with a 7-footer still needs its guards and wings to block out, not assume all is good.

The Chiefs’ star, the NFL’s brightest, did play hero ball Friday in Brazil, even if only for the second half. The scramble that led this column set up another rush for a touchdown.

One drive later, on third down, Mahomes somehow managed to flick a pass as his body fell sideways, against the grain of his momentum. The throw landed right on target, into the lap of receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster for a first down.

Yet one more drive later, Mahomes was sent sprinting to the sideline after Khalil Mack needed about half a second to beat left guard Kingsley Suamataia on a rush ... yet Mahomes still managed to heave the ball 49 yards to Hollywood Brown to keep the Chiefs alive.

After his own tough start, he put the team on his back.

They refused the ride.

The defense played like it will require a terrific offense. Using the term “pass rush” feels contradictory to what we saw. They were man-handled at the line of scrimmage for most of the night, and that’s no doubt a root of Reid’s rare post-game message. The safeties got targeted frequently, and they got beat frequently. They lost track of seemingly every receiver they defended.

Right tackle Jawaan Taylor lost track of, well, the line of scrimmage again. Travis Kelce headbutted him after one penalty. Hey, some fire, at least. There were flashes of it, sure. Tranquill shouldn’t regret his play, and he’s not alone. But that shouldn’t be a small list.

The offense that found points on its last five drives found all of 28 yards the first three times it possessed the football. It lost that line-of-scrimmage battle, too. If the Chiefs are clipping first-half highlights, they’re leading with the fire drill of a field goal attempt. Mahomes isn’t absolved from that. Nor the next stat: His first 17 pass attempts totaled 57 yards.

He was off.

The emotion can’t be.

“You don’t come out and play with the right mindset, you get beat,” Mahomes said

He was visibly irked after the game. Reid, too. It’s not as though they’re typically happy after losses, but it’s about as close as they come to calling out players, though not singling any out. They delivered purposeful messages.

The Chiefs were short-handed Friday. Rashee Rice served the first of a six-game suspension. Worthy certainly was a significant part of the game-plan, and then his significance in the game was relegated to one series.

That puts an asterisk on the result — but not on a lack of physical play in a game they knew would demand it.

“I expect more than that,” Reid said. “I have to make sure we come out with a little better emotion.

“It was a nice big stage for us, against a good football team.”

There were two good football teams. One of them apparently left its best in Kansas City.

But, hey, 16 games left, you know. It’s early. There’s time. So it’s on to next week

Oh, right, the Eagles are coming to town next weekend.

Should be an emotional one, right?

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