Coming off the team’s first loss of the season, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce addressed the game on his podcast “New Heights.“ Kelce gave credit to the Seattle Seahawks, who held the Chiefs to historically low offensive numbers; the captain of our ship here at Arrowhead Pride, Ron Kopp Jr., highlighted this in a piece following the game.
Mahomes finished with 165 yards on 19 of 33 passing, posting the fifth-lowest marks of his career for passing yards per attempt (5) and passer rating
(58.3).
It was only the second time Kansas City has scored three or fewer points with Mahomes at quarterback. The other game was also in Week 7, in 2021, a 27-3 loss to the Tennessee Titans.
“They came ready to play,” Kelce admitted, giving a special shoutout to Seattle’s fans, known as The 12th Man. “Sunday night up in Seattle, that place was rocking. The Twelves were loud, and it was a pretty frustrating game from the jump.”
Diving into more detail about what frustrated the Chiefs, Kelce said Seattle played a shell defense for much of the game, relying on their defensive linemen to win one-on-one matchups. “It felt like they were playing prevent the entire time and just letting the front four cause havoc in the run game…”
“We still couldn’t find a way to get the ball past the 30- or 40-yard line. We had to dink and dunk, and they forced us to be good on third downs and, essentially, fourth downs as well.”
Kelce also addressed his personal performance, namely a costly penalty for an illegal formation that he was called for on the Chiefs’ opening drive.
“I had another drive killer in the first f*cking drive,” said Kelce. “I got caught in motion, not knowing that the running back came up to the line with Pat. I’ve just got to get set. That killed that drive, and we were rolling, man. We were rolling that first drive, and that kind of stalled us.”
One penalty doesn’t lose a game, though. Kelce said numerous factors led to the Chiefs losing to Seattle. “…it was bad technique, bad fundamentals, just okay effort. There were a lot of things—the attention to detail. And I say this because that’s what I see out of myself on film.
“As a unit, we’ve got to play better together, which means making sure we’re all being accountable in every single aspect of the game. If it’s the backside of a route, be ready and on time. If it’s the called route that we’re trying to get open, be on time and where you need to be, releasing the right way and attacking the defense the right way.”
Kelce added that the Chiefs’ wide receiver and tight ends need to do a better job making “The read easy for Pat (quarterback Patrick Mahomes) to get the ball out on time so the offensive line doesn’t have to strain for more than what they typically do.”
After going back and watching the tape and self-scouting the team’s performance, Kelce said he was frustrated because the team missed opportunities to attack Seattle.
“If we get the opportunity to play them again, I’m sure we’ll have it geared up and be fired up and ready to go.
“But looking at it right now, they kind of got us, man. And it wasn’t just that scheme. Those guys were flying the f*ck around. They played very well together. They were all on the same f*cking page in terms of the gap assignments and things like that. There were very few mistakes, and the mistakes they were making, we didn’t capitalize on. It’s frustrating as hell.”
“I think a lot of it is coming in with the right mentality and a togetherness that we’re not going to be denied. We need to learn from this, feel how it felt to get our tail kicked like that, and never let it happen again.”
So that leaves the million-dollar question: what do the Chiefs need to do to bounce back and ensure last Sunday night’s performance was a fluke, not the new norm?
“We’re coming off a game where we didn’t perform well in really any phase. It’s got to fire you the f*ck up, man. You’ve got to have a nasty taste in your mouth when you lose,” said a fired-up Kelce. “You can’t be okay with being mediocre or looking around like, ‘I wasn’t the reason.’
“You’ve got to f—ing have a nasty, disgusting taste in [in your mouth],” said Kelce. “Losing in this league and find the f—ing answers. All that means is you’ve got to f—ing go to work.
“I’ll be damned if we go out there and f—ing have another f—ing showing like that again. I can promise you that.”
