It looks like the Kansas City Chiefs knew exactly what they were doing when they dealt veteran Alex Smith to Washington so that second-year QB Patrick Mahomes could take the reins of a promising offense.

Mahomes, in just his third career start, set an NFL record of 10 touchdowns in his first two weeks after torching Pittsburgh’s secondary on Sunday afternoon and leading the Chiefs to a 42-37 victory on the road. Mahomes had six touchdown passes on the day, which tied Len Dawson for the single-game franchise record.

Mahomes became the third quarterback since 1970 to have at least nine touchdown passes throughout his team’s first two games, besting Drew Brees and Peyton Manning.

He finished the day with 23-of-28 passing for 326 yards and no interceptions.

His favorite targets included TE Travis Kelce (seven catches, 109 yards and two TDs), versatile weapon Tyreek Hill (five catches, 90 yards and one TD) and Sammy Watkins (six catches for 100 yards). Chris Conley, Kareem Hunt and DeMarcus Robinson were the other scorers.

"I see Pat doing this all season long," Kelce said. "He's got the confidence. As long as we give him time and get open as wide outs and tight ends and running backs, he's going to be able to get the best out of everyone."

The first TD strike came just two minutes into the first quarter when Mahomes threaded a 15-yard needle to Conley. His next score found Kelce in a tight window for 19 yards only minutes later. Hunt caught a short pass to the left to register Mahomes’ third TD pass of the first quarter, giving the Chiefs a 21-0 lead.

The Steelers, behind a strong game from Ben Roethlisberger and TE Jesse James, would make it a game, but Mahomes kept pouring it on. The former first-round pick found Hill along the left sideline for 29 yards at the start of the fourth quarter to cap his historic day.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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