‘Gotta catch the ball’ — Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce breaks silence after costly drop-turned-interception vs. Eagles
Chiefs TE Travis Kelce shouldered the blame for not getting his head around on the game-changing play.
Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce didn’t speak to the media following the Week 2 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. It was a bit of a surprise, given that Kelce failed to catch a red-zone pass, popping it up for an interception.
There’s no avoiding the conversation on his weekly “New Heights” podcast with brother Jason Kelce, no matter how much he didn’t want to talk about it.
“Let’s do it, man, my day was going great,” Travis said. “I forgot about this game, put it in the past. Let’s [expletive] talk about it.”
Kelce took full responsibility for not being able to catch the pass, but the play is more indicative of a collective problem. The Chiefs are not executing in the same way they have in years past, leading to some big swings in the opposite direction. Some of that can be attributed to the injuries and absences on offense, but certainly not all of it. For Kelce, it starts with just making the play to give him and his teammates an opportunity.
“Gotta catch the ball,” Travis said. “Gotta catch the ball. We give ourselves a chance. Right now, we’re just not executing to the degree that we hold ourselves accountable to, and that’s just, it starts up top with Coach Reid and how he holds us accountable. And then, you know, us players got to hold each other accountable. I got to be there for my guys, man, knowing that they put a lot on my plate to be a good player for this team, and I need to fucking answer that bell, man.”
Chiefs TE Travis Kelce won’t let Patrick Mahomes shoulder the blame on this one
Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes did speak to reporters after the 20-17 loss, shouldering the blame for the interception. He said that he threw the ball a tad early, but Kelce didn’t accept that from his quarterback.
“The ball was where it needed to be, when it needed to be there,” Travis said. “I just got to get my head around out of the break. And I shot you the text telling you that it’s one of those plays where it happens, bang, bang. And I know that that’s the window that it needs to be in. I know what’s coming out of the armpits and ear holes of the offense and defensive line, getting their hands up. And I just got to be able to get my head around right now so that I don’t put myself in a position to let the ball surprise me like that.”
Kelce, of course, was frustrated by the outcome. He felt it was a routine play that he’d made a million times before. He knows how much it cost the team, and said, “It’s something that should have never happened.”
However, it did happen, and as Kelce said earlier, there’s a collective issue of execution that has been present throughout the first two weeks of the season. They’ve got to figure out how to fix it so that it doesn’t become a trend.
“We just got to get the train rolling on the right tracks, man,” Travis said. “We’re a play here and a play there, away from being 2-and-0, and that’s what we see when we watch the film. And, you know, it’s all about just keep coming to work every single day and getting right.”
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