Travis Kelce is keeping his head in the sport after his team’s first lack of the NFL season.
Kelce, 35, and the Kansas City Chiefs were defeated by the Buffalo Bills 21-30 on the Bills’ home turf on Sunday, November 17. Throughout the latest installment of his “Latest Heights” podcast with brother Jason Kelce, Travis weighed in on what the Chiefs are taking away from the disappointing result.
“The Bills played an excellent four-quarter football game. … It was all around the board,” the tight end said on Wednesday, November 20. “[We’re going] back to the drafting board, of course. I believe it was a pleasant — I don’t need to call it a wake-up call because we went into that game knowing the Bills were one in every of the highest teams within the NFL. Sometimes you only need a unique perspective on things.”
He continued, “Watching this game back, you type of see a trend happening over the past three to 4 weeks. You only gotta tremendous tune things. Get back to the fundamentals, get back to the basics. And really just get back to going to work throughout the week. I even have all the arrogance on this planet [that] we’ll be higher for this reason game, but at the identical time, hats off to the Bills for showing up.”
Prior to Sunday’s loss, the Chiefs were undefeated throughout the season with nine wins under their belt. Jason, 37, acknowledged that the Chiefs defense “didn’t play bad,” however the Bills were in a position to make “plays at the proper time” to secure the win.
“[Quarterback] Josh [Allen] played great,” Jason said. “This was two really good teams going up against one another.”
Jason went on to praise Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and coach Andy Reid for a way they approached questions on the team now not being undefeated following Sunday’s game. Each noted in postgame press conferences that staying undefeated wasn’t the team’s end goal, and Travis agreed.
“You don’t think, ‘Oh, I really need to win this game so I can remain undefeated,’” he explained. “No, we wish to win this game because we’ve lots of really close football games against the Buffalo Bills and we love f—ing competing against them because they’re among the finest teams within the league. … I get fired up playing against one of the best teams within the National Football League, and I used to be fired up for this one and I didn’t play my best. And that s— pisses me off.”
Losing to the Bills made Travis need to “go right back into work on Monday after the sport and get after it.” He promised Chiefs fans that the team will attempt to turn things around before facing off against the Carolina Panthers this week.
“I believe that is something that you simply won’t see out of us in the longer term,” he said. “I believe we’re very confident that we’ll get the things fixed. We’ve got all of the talent that we want to go and win one other Super Bowl. … And I believe everybody knows that. All we gotta do is just be at our greatest. And that’s what we weren’t for 4 quarters.”
Travis conceded that the Bills were “fundamentally more sound in lots of different areas” than his own team. “You realize, I put that on myself to harp on the basics throughout practice, be sure that I’m getting on the market and I’m running around, I’m not only going through the plays,” he added. “Be certain that I’m focused, be sure that I get the timing down with the quarterback … you already know, lots of this s— could be very fixable.”
Despite not being 10-0 for the season, Travis insisted he has “all the religion on this planet” in his teammates. “I don’t give a f— how your body’s feeling, I don’t give a f— where your mentality is off the sphere,” he continued. “Once you step in that constructing, we’re here to figure s— out. And we’re here to improve as football players for the football team. … And I believe myself included, I’ve gotta be the leader that I’ve been prior to now and hold myself accountable so that everyone sees the way it’s done.”
The Chiefs travel to North Carolina to play the Panthers on Sunday, November 24, and have a fast turnaround for his or her next home game against the Las Vegas Raiders on Friday, November 29. (TBD on whether Travis’ girlfriend and Chiefs good luck charm Taylor Swift will attend either game amid her Eras Tour schedule.)