THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: The good QBs always find a way to be great

How did we lose?

Oh, how many times do teams and players moan something like that, looking back at a game they dominated and almost surely should have won?

Teams at every level — and in every sport — go right to the wire in games that wind up decided by one play, one mistake, one flash of brilliance.

Nobody wins all the time.

Even bumblers who screw things up win once in a while.

That’s just the law of competition.

Having said it, though, think about consistent winners.

Tom Brady drove me crazy, because it always seemed like he was riding to Super Bowl victories on chariots built by coaches, by great defenses, by picking the right team when he came back out of retirement.

Only Tom Brady wins the Super Bowl because Pete Carroll decides not to bother with having Marshawn Lynch smash into the end zone from a single yard away.

Nope.

We all remember that one.

Russell Wilson throws, Malcolm Butler jumps the route, New England steals what should have been back-to-back titles for the Seahawks.

That play, though, isn’t the way I remember the Super Bowl.

No, it’s seared in my brain because of Tom Brady.

Winners win.

Aaaaarrggh!

A CRAZY thing about winners is that they don’t have to play particularly well.

Sure, most of the time they’re on top of things and they’re breezing at top speed with control of the game.

Patrick Mahomes doesn’t stumble along making mistakes, missing coverages and overthrowing wide-open receivers.

Yes, it can happen.

Occasionally.

Maybe if he’s enduring a fractured ankle, playing anyway because winners want to be on the field.

Maybe then you’d get an average performance.

But most of the time, even on those days when Mahomes is bound to grimace he sees the game tape afterward, he finds a way to win.

“I can’t keep missing guys, and misreading defenses,” Mahomes said after a close call (the Chiefs have won 13 straight games and two straight Super Bowls).

“If we don’t raise the level we’re playing, we’re just another football team.”

There’s no question now that Mahomes has the “winning gene,” some cosmic mojo that the rest of us only know about because we don’t have it.

We don’t even know what it feels like.

Heck, Mahomes probably can’t quite explain it, either. He just plays, does magic things at crunch time, and then accepts congratulations when he wins again.

WINNING is on my mind at the moment, because there are plenty of competitors at different levels —and some of them have that special gene.

One of them happens to be rocking right down the road.

I can’t guarantee much in our fun world of sports, but this one is a lock.

Washington State would not be 7-1 overall, ranked No. 22 nationally, headed for a bowl game — and dreaming of the College Football Playoff — without John Mateer.

Week after week, you look at the Cougs’ stats, you check on their game stories, and … HEY!

Guess what?

Mateer pulled Wazzu out of the bottomless canyon again.

He’s done it twice in the past three games, at Fresno State and then at San Diego State.

Critical note here: WSU was in trouble in the first place because Mateer was either ordinary or less than that.

He had a lot of goofs, too, as the Cougs fell into these dangerous spots, but as serial winners do … he turned the ship around just in the nick of time.

The Cougs were two TDs down in the fourth quarter at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego when Mateer put his arm and legs to conclusive use — throwing a touchdown pass to Carlos Hernandez and scoring the winner himself on a drive that featured Mateer running five times.

Here are some unusual stats (that won’t get Mateer into the Heisman voting, but maybe they should): If you remove the hammerings of overmatched Portland State and Hawaii, Wazzu is only plus-18 scoring in its other six games.

Mateer, who is 6-1 and 220 pounds but looks and plays considerably bigger, has thrown 18 TD passes and run for 10 more — most in gut-check situations.

He’s in the Cheap Seats today for one reason: John Mateer reminds me of Mahomes.

He’s more of a football player than a thrower.

He’s a baller who plays to win.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”