Travis Kelce: ‘Scoring every drive is a mission’ for Chiefs

Travis Kelce spoke with reporters after the Chiefs win over the Raiders.

On the surface, it seems ridiculous to expect the Kansas City Chiefs, or any team for that matter, to score on every single drive. Yet judging by the reactions of fans—yours truly included—on drives that result in a punt or stall for some reason, you’d think the expectation was there for the Chiefs to take it all the way every single time.

It turns out those are internal expectations as well.

The Chiefs lead the NFL in scoring through 11 weeks at a rate of 32 points per game. They’re also the top team in scoring percentage, with a whopping 52.8 percent of all drives resulting in a score of some kind—be it a touchdown or field goal. (By comparison the Jets are at half that total at 26 percent.) Yet even the Chiefs eye-popping numbers still point to several drives each game that end up stalled for one reason or another.

After the Chiefs comeback win over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday night, All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce spoke to the media about the team’s offensive capabilities and said their expectations are high for good reason. “We know what we’re capable of. We have the ultimate firepower on offense. Scoring every drive is a mission. It’s the expectation that we set for ourselves.”

Kelce went on to discuss a lesson he learned personally while facing the Raiders in Week 5, saying he tried to “do too much” in the team’s only loss of the season. Instead, the Chiefs offensive success is about each player doing what is asked of him and trusting in the talents and preparation of his teammates and coaching staff.

"“You know you’re always in it,” said Kelce. “That’s the biggest thing is that you can go out there and create energy with a purpose knowing that coach Reid and the offensive staff are going to put you in a good position and, sure enough, 15 is always ready for the moment.“So you just gotta make sure that you’re staying true to the scheme and disciplined within the scheme and not trying to do too much, like I did the last itme playing the Raiders and it hurt us. This time, just kinda staying on track with who we are knowing who we are is good enough. That showed out there today.”"

With the win over the Raiders, the Chiefs moved to 9-1 on the season and in firm control of the AFC West.