Chiefs News 11/17: Travis Kelce couldn’t care less about breaking Chiefs TD record

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Travis Kelce breaks team record for most total touchdowns | NBC Sports

He scored a fourth-quarter touchdown in the fourth quarter, catching a 21-yard pass from Patrick Mahomes. It was his 84th career score, breaking a tie with Priest Holmes for the Chiefs’ team record.

After the 22-19 loss to the Broncos, Kelce declined to talk to reporters in violation of the NFL’s media access policy.

“If you’re going to ask me about the record, I could [sic] care less about that right now,” Kelce said, via James

Palmer of TheAthletic.com.

The Chiefs’ hopes of continuing their streak of AFC West titles is on life support, and at 5-5, their playoff hopes aren’t much better.

How the Broncos Knew From Experience They Could Beat the Chiefsd Beat the Chiefs | SI

For the defense, those moments arrived in the fourth quarter, when it looked like the Chiefs were gearing up to run away with the game. A Travis Kelce touchdown put Kansas City up 19–16 with 9:57 left. The Broncos’ defense went back out there with 8:11 left. They secured their first three and out. Then, after a resulting short field helped set up a 54-yard Lutz field goal to tie it, the defense got another three and out, keyed by a McMillian sack on third down.

“[Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph] called it at the right time,” said McMillian, who’d picked off Mahomes earlier in the second half. “He’d been saying I was gonna come free, we were going to come free on that play, with the nickel, which is me. I was just reading Mahomes. The whole game, I’d watch his hands go up, and that’s when the ball was snapped. I just timed it up well, and they didn’t slide the protection my way, and I just made a play.”

Are Chiefs’ playoff hopes cooked? .500 Kansas City wades into uncharted waters | 41 KSHB

The more pressing concern right now is to get back in the playoff race with a surging Indianapolis Colts team heading to GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium fresh off its bye and eager to stay in the fight for the AFC’s top seed.

Kansas City currently sits ninth in the AFC pecking order.

The top seven teams make the postseason, so the Chiefs’s season is far from over, but a dismal 2-4 conference record and losses to two teams currently in the Wild Card spots — Jacksonville, which effectively has a two-game lead, and Buffalo, which essentially has a three-game cushion — increase the degree of difficulty for coach Andy Reid’s to play past the first weekend in January.

“At the end of the day, all the goal is is to get into the playoffs and try to make a run at it,” Mahomes said.

Kansas City still said the right things after squandering a chance to turn the AFC West into monthslong rock fight.

“The season still can go how we want it to go,” defensive tackle Chris Jones said.

NFL Week 11 overreactions and reality checks: Chargers collapsing? Time to bench J.J. McCarthy? | CBS Sports

Chiefs hopes of winning AFC West are dashed

Overreaction or reality: Reality

Kansas City’s bid for 10-straight AFC West titles is on life support. With Sunday’s loss to the Broncos, the Chiefs not only dropped back down to .500 on the season at 5-5, but Denver has extended its lead in the division by a sizable amount. At 9-2, they are two games up on the Chargers and three games up over K.C. in the loss column. That’s not even accounting for the current head-to-head tiebreaker advantage they earned in Week 11. The road doesn’t get easier for the Chiefs either, as they’ll now have to host a Colts team that’ll be fresh off its bye week before turning around and visiting the Cowboys on Thanksgiving. It would require a herculean effort by Patrick Mahomes and Co. and an utter collapse by the Broncos to even make their final matchup in Week 17 carry any sort of weight in this division race.

NFL Week 11 winners, losers: Josh Allen plays Superman for Bills in win over Bucs | CBS Sports

Winner: Broncos

OK, maybe it’s time we take Denver seriously. The Broncos are dragging opposing teams into the mud rather than routing them with high-octane fireworks, but Sunday’s tight-knit win over the reigning AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs was a statement victory. That makes eight straight for Sean Payton’s squad, which might boast some of the most clutch performers in the league on both sides. Bo Nix remains a late-game fiend. And the defense, featuring the rangy Ja’Quan McMillian, is a terror.

NFL Week 11 winners, losers | Yardbarker

Losers

Kansas City Chiefs’ playoff hopes: We have not been able to say this much over the past 10 years, but the Chiefs might be in trouble. With their loss on Sunday they are 5-5, on the outside of the playoff picture, and have lost head-to-head games with every team currently in a wild-card position.

Around the NFL

Browns’ Shedeur Sanders debuts after Dillon Gabriel concussion | ESPN

Sanders finished 4-of-16 passing for 47 yards with an interception and was sacked twice. He also had three carries for 16 yards as Cleveland, which led by six points at the half, lost 23-16.

“I don’t think I played good,” Sanders said. “I don’t think I played good at all. I think there’s a lot of things we need to look at during the week and go and just get comfortable with even throwing routes with [wide receiver] Jerry [Jeudy] and throwing routes with all those guys. I think that was my first ball to him all year. But other than that, I just think overall, we just got to go next week and understand, so that we have a week to prepare stuff I like to do.”

The Browns drove to Baltimore’s 25-yard line in the closing minutes, but Sanders threw three straight incompletions, including on a third-down pass to wide receiver Gage Larvadain in the end zone that was broken up by cornerback Chidobe Awuzie. Cleveland later turned over the ball on downs, allowing the Ravens to run out the clock.

Steelers’ Ramsey ejected for throwing punch at Bengals’ Chase | ESPN

After the game, Ramsey was adamant Chase spit on him before he threw the punch. A field-level view captured by FOX 19 WXIX-TV shows spit coming out of Chase’s mouth just before Ramsey threw the punch.

“He spit on me,” Ramsey said. “I don’t give a f— about football after that, respectfully. I’m always going to be all for trash talking, s— talking, things like that. I actually enjoy that part of the game. I think that people know that. … We were talking s—, which I’m cool with. And then as soon as he spit, it was f— that. … I’m sure the NFL, they’ll do their due diligence. They’ve got 100 cameras out there. They can investigate. They can see everything. … They should be able to pull it up and see that he spit and it’s whatever after that, to be honest. I was still a little too nice if I’m keeping it honest with you.”

Chase, however, denied Ramsey’s accusation.

In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride

Missed opportunities doom Chiefs in Week 11 loss to Broncos

These included failed opportunities to score before halftime, an interception on the first possession of the third quarter and 10 penalties (totaling 69 yards) throughout the matchup. The Chiefs continued their alarming trend of beating themselves in close games — a pattern that has appeared in each of their five losses this season.

“Whenever you’re playing good teams — whether it’s myself making a call or the players playing — you’ve got to do the right things,” head coach Andy Reid said in his postgame press conference. “Put guys in the right position, then guys have to make plays when given an opportunity — on both sides of the ball and special teams.”

But despite all the miscues, Kansas City still held a 19-16 fourth-quarter lead — thanks to a 21-yard touchdown pass to tight end Travis Kelce. But from there, the Chiefs just couldn’t close. The offense went three-and-out on its final two possessions, while the defense allowed two field goals — including the one that ended the game.

“Denver played a good game — and it got us today,” noted Reid. “On our side, we had to make sure that we [didn’t] go three-and-out with those last couple of offensive series. Then there were a variety of things that went on — that we all contributed to — on both sides of the ball and special teams.”