KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs had one of the most interesting blowouts in NFL history. And it had nothing to do with the play on the field.
After a couple of weeks of rumors of a romance between tight end Travis Kelce and popstar Taylor Swift, the singer-songwriter took a break from her world-traveling The Eras Tour to stop in Kansas City to watch the Chiefs handle the Chicago Bears 41-10.
Her excitement reached its peak when Kelce scored a touchdown in the third quarter, capping off another quality performance from him to go with his 69 receiving yards. After the touchdown, Swift was seen rejoicing next to Kelce’s mother Donna and gave a friend next to her a chest bump.
While Kelce was not made available to the media, quarterback Patrick Mahomes knew he had to find him in the endzone at some point.
“I felt a little bit of pressure so I knew I had to get it to Trav,” Mahomes jokingly said on the field after the game.
“And of course it was on a route that… he does his own thing and just makes up a route and I throw it to him so I think he wanted to get in the end zone just as much as all the Swifties wanted him to.”
Aside from Swiftmania, it was a ‘get right’ game for the Chiefs, who face a Bears team that saw its young QB Justin Fields express concern about feeling robotic in his offense and had their defensive coordinator Alan Williams resign in the middle of the week.
With the Chiefs’ offense only managing a season-high 20 points in two games, they knew they needed to get back to their high-scoring ways.
“The first two weeks, we just kind of have been out of rhythm,” Mahomes said. “Just to not have those killer penalties and to get the offense moving in the right direction and then all that other stuff kinda comes with it. So I was proud of the guys today. Still little things here and there that we can tweak, but it was a step in the right direction.”
“(Offensive coordinator) Matt Nagy and the offensive coaches put together a very nice game plan,” head coach Andy Reid said.
“Feel like in previous weeks we just lacked execution,” running back Jerick McKinnon said. He finished the day with two receiving TDs.
“Today we came out, and we executed, converted a good amount of third downs and was able to keep drives sustained.”
On the opposite side of the ball, the Chiefs’ defense limited the Bears to 203 yards (99 passing) and a late touchdown. By averaging 13 points a game from opponents, the defense has quickly established itself as one of the best in the league.
“It was awesome to see,” defensive end Mike Danna said. “We pride ourselves at the beginning of the week to play as a unit, stay together and just continue to stack (good games on top of each other).”
“We the best in the NFL,” linebacker Willie Gay said. “You gotta believe within yourself before anybody else can. That’s what I think, that’s what we think. And we gonna continue to improve and get better ’til the end of this thing.”
The Chiefs are 2-1 and go into East Rutherford next week to face the New York Jets on Sunday Night Football: a game that was supposed to be the first Mahomes-Rodgers showdown but has since been derailed by Rodgers’ torn Achilles tendon.
With the 1-2 Jets looking to find themselves without Rodgers, the Chiefs have a chance to get another impressive win on another national stage.