There was a lot of blame placed on Patrick Mahomes and the offense for the Kansas City Chiefs' loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship game.

And I get it — the Chiefs' offense didn't play very well in the second half against the Bengals.

But that's not the main reason Kansas City didn't reach their third straight Super Bowl.

The Chiefs lost to the Bengals because their pass rush wasn't good enough.

Cincinnati had an extremely difficult time protecting quarterback Joe Burrow during the playoffs — except in their win against Kansas City.

Burrow was sacked 19 times during the playoffs. Only one of those sacks, however, came against the Chiefs.

The Bengals gave up an average of six sacks per game in their other three playoff games. If Kansas City would've sacked Burrow six times, that game would've never gone to overtime and the Chiefs would've played the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl.

Kansas City obviously has a massive need at pass rusher. That's why ESPN's Mel Kiper has the team addressing that need in his latest mock draft.

Kiper has Kansas City taking Minnesota edge rusher Boye Mafe with the No. 30 overall selection in the 2022 NFL Draft.

Here's what Kiper had to say about that pick:

I included Mafe (and Bernhard Raimann) on my list of potential first-round sleepers back in October, and he just keeps rising. He finished the season in a sack slump (one in his final five games), but he was phenomenal at the Senior Bowl, showing some power and finesse as an edge rusher. At 6-foot-3, 255 pounds, he can use his get-off speed to fly by tackles. Mafe has versatility as well, and he moved up to No. 3 in my outside linebacker rankings.

For the Chiefs, this is about getting younger and improving a pass rush that had only 31 sacks last season (29th in the league).

This pick would be a good start to solving the Chiefs' pass rush issues. But when it comes to the 2022 season, this wouldn't fix everything.

Kansas City still needs to get better at the EDGE rusher position through free agency for this upcoming season. The Chiefs can't count on a rookie to solve their pass rush issues in 2022.

Fortunately for Kansas City, general manager Brett Veach is well aware of the Chiefs' deficiencies and I'm sure this will be a key area of concern this offseason.

Featured image via Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports