Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce said he was “really pissed” about his team's performance in Sunday's loss to the Bills, their first loss of the season.
In his and brother Jason Kelsey's latest work, Podcast “New Heights”After Jason brought up the story about the Chiefs allowing the winning streak, Travis told himself he would “handle it right.”
“I'm not thinking, 'Oh, I really want to win this game so we can stay undefeated,'” Travis, 35, said after making two catches for 8 yards in the 30-21 loss. he said. “No, we want to win this game because we have a lot of really close football games against the Buffalo Bills and we love playing against them, because they are the best in the league. You get fired up when you play against the best teams in the NFL, and this time we were fired up, but we didn't play our best.
“That really pissed me off, so after Monday's game I went right back to work and found a way to fix the problem.”
Travis has turned things around after a slow start with 32 catches and just two touchdowns this season in the three games leading up to the showdown with the Bills.
Before Sunday's loss, the Chiefs had won 15 straight games last season, including the playoffs, and were looking for their second consecutive championship by defeating the 49ers in the Super Bowl in February.
That performance included a 27-24 win over Buffalo in the divisional round of the playoffs after the Bills won the regular-season matchup between the rivals in Kansas City.
Getty Images
Travis explained that the loss to the Bills changed his view of the team moving forward, and said he is confident Kansas City will pursue a three-peat.
“I don’t think this is something you’re going to see from us in the future,” he said. “I think we're very confident that we can solve the problem. We have all the talent we need to win another Super Bowl…I think everyone knows that. All we have to do is be our best, and that means we haven't been our best for four quarters. I mean, there hasn't been one quarter where we've been better than them.
“…They were fundamentally healthier in a lot of areas, so I put that on myself to harp the basics in practice. Make sure you stay focused, I have all the confidence in the world with this team. ”
Travis spoke highly of Bills quarterback Josh Allen, explaining how powerful he is when using his legs.
Allen scored a touchdown with 4 outs and 2nd base with 2 minutes and 17 seconds remaining to seal the victory and move into first place in the AFC East with 9 wins and 2 losses.
“Being undefeated would have been nice, but that's not our ultimate goal,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said in his postgame press conference. “So we will continue to build toward that.
“That's a good football team. There's nothing to worry about losing to them. I feel like we can play better. So we're going to go back to work and use this as a springboard to ultimately We're going to work hard to become a better soccer team.”
Mahomes completed 23-of-33 for 196 yards with three touchdown passes and two interceptions.
The Chiefs (9-1) will play the Panthers (3-7) on Sunday in Charlotte.
The Bills have a bye this week until they play the 49ers on December 1st.
