“It’s Really Just Our Defense Keeping Us in Games”: Hurt Travis Kelce Has His Say on Chiefs Offensive Struggles

Dec 27, 2023 | 11:21 AM EST

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The Chiefs collected their sixth loss of the season against the Raiders. And it showcased the defending champions’ glaring issues once again. Even frontmen Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes played their part in the unwanted scoreline, with both fumbling with the ball at one point.

But the Chiefs have indeed managed to win nine games this season. With two more games to play, they still quite comfortably lead the AFC West. If the offense has been struggling this much lately, who is to be credited with those victories earlier in the season? Kelce had an exact answer to that.

Travis Kelce praises the Chiefs’ defense for keeping them alive.

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Talking to The New Heights podcast with brother Jason Kelce, the TE’s face turned sorrowful as soon as the other brought in their recent loss. “We’ve taken a lot of learning shots, and unfortunately, we’ve lost a lot of those games. In years past, we’ve won those games, found a way to win at the end… It’s really just our defense that’s keeping us in games,” Kelce revealed the bitter truth that they have learned from their mistakes the hard way, and the team can still change the outcomes of the matches that they were used to doing in years past.

Furthermore, the TE described how their offense itself was making things harder for their defense. “We were really banking on the defense, giving us one last drive… But we played so trash as an offense that we put the defense in a really, really tough spot there at the end of the game,” he disclosed. By the time the defensive was able to win a drive in the 4th quarter, they were already 13 points down to the Raiders.

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Kelce’s comments are further proven by the fact that the Chiefs’ defense did not allow a single point to the Raiders’ offense after the 1st quarter, which Jason termed ‘elite’. But can the helpless defense keep the Chiefs alive in the postseason as well, where they try to defend their ring?

Sub-par offense: Bad news for Travis Kelce-Patrick Mahomes

Neither of the two stars was perfect with their performances in the Raiders’ loss. Mahomes dropped the ball as soon as the RB Isiah Pacheco handed it off to him during a second-quarter drive. DT Bilal Nichols wasted no time collecting it and running for an 8-yard touchdown. Kelce, on the other hand, made the worst decision.

Frustrated with his play after the first quarter, where they conceded 17 points, Kelce violently threw his helmet toward a table in outrage. Even Andy Reid gave him a shoulder bump to send him a message following the act. And the two frontmen’s struggles just add to the long-standing receiving problems the team has long been facing.

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Could the Chiefs turn it around and rejuvenate themselves in the playoffs? Likely not with the alarming amount of offensive mistakes!

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