KC Chiefs: Travis Kelce compliments ‘hungry, feisty’ Texans

Dec 18, 2022; Houston, Texas, USA; Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) runs with the ball as Houston Texans safety M.J. Stewart (29) attempts to make a tackle during the second quarter at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 18, 2022; Houston, Texas, USA; Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) runs with the ball as Houston Texans safety M.J. Stewart (29) attempts to make a tackle during the second quarter at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

If you ask Travis Kelce, the Houston Texans aren’t a team to be taken lightly at all, even if they have only a single win on the season.

From the outside looking in, e.g. the position that most of us are in when it comes to rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs, the Week 15 matchup pitting K.C. against the Houston Texans was a serious mismatch. So when it ended up being an overtime thriller, the responses weren’t all that positive despite Chiefs Kingdom watching another victory.

The Chiefs visited Houston last Sunday as the favorites with a laughable spread while facing a team that had only a single win to its credit and another tie. Given that the Chiefs were ready to lock up the AFC West for a seventh consecutive year, it made sense to expect Patrick Mahomes and company to steamroll the competition and enjoy some downtime on the sidelines while the subs came in to finish them off.

Instead, the Chiefs found themselves behind early and often and were quite fortunate to come away with a chance to win in overtime at all. They committed multiple turnovers and called conservative plays, and a Texans team missing several of their best offensive players was able to put up points on a defense with coverage concerns.

After the fact, however, Chiefs All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce went on record on Wednesday with the release of the latest episode of his New Heights podcast with his brother, Jason Kelce, to say some very complimentary things about the Texans defense.  Jason Kelce asked his brother about his primary takeaway from the game and this was his response:

“That is a hungry team. That is a feisty team. They played their asses off. They play well together, too. They communicate well on defense. They passed off a lot of the crossing routes and made Pat go through his reads more than we have in the past, I think. They caught us on a few blitzes, fumbles, a few flags here and there on offense and defense and put ourselves in some tough situations and the Texans were capitalizing on a lot of our miscues.”

Now that’s not to say that Kelce cannot understand the viewpoint of many fans who are wondering when the Chiefs are going to put their mistakes behind them and play clean enough to handle the postseason.

“When you look at the tape, it’s a lot of stuff that we did that you’ve gotta clean up but we’ve been saying that all year. We eventually have to be able to put it together before the playoffs so that we know what that feels like and we know how powerful this engine can go. But hats off to the Texans for playing a helluva game.”

Even with the Texans at 1-12-1, it looks like their future might be brighter if these young players can come together and play at that level while adding more talent on both sides of the ball. For now, the Chiefs will take the win and the lessons learned.

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