INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The Los Angeles charger know where the ball is going on Sunday night at SoFi Stadium.
But they still can’t stop Travis Kelce.
in one 30-27, comeback victory on the Chargers server, the talents Chief of Kansas City a tight finish that ended with six 115 yards touchdown and three points on eight goals, including the winner of the game – a 17 yard touchdown on the touchline for the safety of Pro Bowl Derwin James Jr. was chased helplessly from behind with 31 seconds remaining.
“You hope to get things done at the right time,” says Kelce. “And sure, by the end of the game, I know he’s trying to sit on my outer shoulder on a lot of things, so anything vertical or outside, he locks me up pretty well. .
“Trainer [Andy] Reid saw that and called a play where I could cross the field and try to beat him with my foot.”
Mission accomplished for Kelce, who overtook Rob Gronkowski in the most 100-yard games in NFL history (33). Kelce’s last-minute catch completed his 12th career win for midfield Patrick Mahomes.
The Kansas City All-Pro quarterback finished 20/34 in 329 yards, with three touchdowns and no interceptions. His partner, Justin Herbertequally impressive, completing 23 of 30 280-yard passes and two touchdowns, with one interception.
However, the Chiefs fired Herbert five times. The seesaw has six lead changes, including two touchdowns in the final two minutes.
With the win, the Captain raised the score to 8-2, beating the Chargers for the 15th time in the past 18 games. The charger drops to 5-5 and will have to be scrapped to reach post-season for the first time since 2018.
“Closing isn’t good enough in this league,” James said of the loss. “I didn’t make enough winning plays to win the game. It’s heartbreaking, but we have to move on and get ready for the next one.”
Even more impressive for the Captains is the impact of some of their recruits.
With the top recipients of the group in JuJu Smith-Schuster (concussion) and Mecole Hardman (belly) out, the Captain plays big man football, relying more heavily on tight second and third quarters to create mismatches in the game of passing and running.
Rookies run back Isiah Pacheco finished with 107 yards of javelin on 15 reps. rookie receiver moore sky a total of five hits from 63 yards and ended the first year tight Justin Watson finished with three hits in 67 yards.
“We have a lot of new faces,” Mahomes said. “And to see them excel in moments like this is special. Obviously, we’ve done that a little bit in this organization. But for those new people to come in and do those plays, not only on offense, but it also seems that at one point all DBs were rookies or newbies.We did a great job of bringing talented players here, and they stepped up up and do great things.”
Down 23-20 in the middle of the fourth half, the Chargers won the ball back as the full-back Troy Reeder forcing the chiefs to run back Jerick McKinnon groping and Hello Gilman recover the ball on LA’s 36-yard line.
Since then, Herbert has driven the Chargers 64 yards in six plays, with the big turn being a 46 yards hit on the way to Keenan Allen. Four plays later, Herbert found Joshua Palmer behind the end-of-court area to score six yards. Palmer finished with the highest eight hits in the game with 106 yards of receiving and two touchdowns.
Unfortunately for the Chargers, they left the clock at 1:46 – too long for Mahomes to lead Kansas City’s attack on points.
“This is what we practice day in, day out throughout the season,” Kelce said. “Coach Eric Bieniemy stressed us a lot about the football situation. Two minutes to win the game 4, it’s a situation we’ve faced a lot. And it’s true. It’s very exciting. And the emotion to be able to persevere through that, it’s like a ticking time bomb. Once you get into the final zone, you’re going to explode.”
The captain has won the past six games they’ve lost after halftime, which is the longest game in the NFL.
Eric D. Williams has covered the NFL for over a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on Twitter at @eric_d_williams.
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