Travis Kelce was not in the mood to talk after the Kansas City Chiefs’ latest loss provided a bleak postseason prognostication.
Kelce, 36, “declined interview requests twice” after the team’s 20-10 loss to the Houston Texans on Sunday, December 7, according to The Athletic’s Jesse Newell. (Kelce’s fiancée, Taylor Swift, was in attendance on Sunday with friends Selena Gomez and Lena Dunham.)
The defeat marked the Chiefs’ fourth loss in five games, putting their playoff chances at just 15 percent, according to the NFL.com predictor model.
It was a rough night for Kelce, who finished with just one catch for eight yards. It was just the sixth time in his career that he didn’t finish with two or more receptions in a game.
To make matters worse, Kelce wasn’t able to haul in a pass from Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes in the stages of the fourth quarter. After Kelce bobbled the ball, it was intercepted by Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, which led to a Houston field goal that ultimately put the game out of reach.
Kelce was shown on the sidelines after the interception, looking stunned and forlorn as the superstar tight end wrestled with the fact that the Chiefs season had likely slipped away.
“It’s time for Travis Kelce to wrap it up man, what the hell!?!,” one Sunday Night Football viewer wrote.
Another wrote, “What in the world happened to Travis Kelce? Anyone want to take a guess? Cuz baby I’ve never seen [the] dude play this poorly, ever.”
Before the game, Kelce was able to share a cute moment with his mom, Donna Kelce, on his way inside the stadium.
Kelce’s despondent look was also acknowledged on the broadcast by Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth.
“The faces of champions are really struggling to comprehend what is happening to this football season,” Collinsworth, 66, said. “Their talent is there. Yes, they had a lot of injuries on this offensive line but by my estimation that’s not what happened tonight. It wasn’t a breakdown of the offensive line. It was a breakdown across the board of the people that have made this franchise great over the past decade.”
Mahomes, 30, who has never missed the playoffs in his NFL career, addressed the difficult spot the team finds themselves in.
“We know the chances are getting lower and lower, but I know the guys on this team are going to give everything they have, every opportunity we get,” Mahomes told reporters after the game.
Mahomes added, “We’re not winning games, but that mindset the guys have in this locker room, in the games we’re not winning, you can never question the fight of this team. Obviously, we’re not executing at the right moments and we’re not making those plays, but at the end of the day you can never question that, and I think you’ll see that these last four weeks.”
With four games left on their schedule, the Chiefs essentially need to win-out and get some major help from the teams ahead of them in the standings if they want any hope of making the postseason.
Kansas City returns to action when they host the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, December 14, with their remaining games against the Tennessee Titans, Denver Broncos and Las Vegas Raiders.
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