KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Travis Kelce has an extensive highlight reel, but nothing quite like the catch, run, backward pass and celebration that ensued on second-and-10 at the Buffalo Bills’ 49-yard line with 85 seconds left Sunday at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Patrick Mahomes received the snap, shuffled backward in his drop to the Kansas City Chiefs’ 40-yard line then fired a BB 30 yards downfield, where Kelce was running away from cornerback Christian Benford toward the visitor’s sideline.
Kelce looped back to the middle of the field, leaving safety Taylor Rapp flailing inside the Buffalo 25 and, with cornerback Cam Lewis ready to smack him near the opposite hashmark, spotted Kadarius Toney all alone along the Chiefs’ sideline.
Kelce, a former high school quarterback, adjusted his grip and rifled a backward pass — with a Mahomes-worthy spiral — from the 21-yard line to Toney near the numbers at the 25.
“That’s why he’s a Hall of Famer,” cornerback Trent McDuffie said. “I don’t know anybody that’s going to make that play in that scenario — two minutes to win the game. That’s why you’ve got to give it to Trav. He makes plays.”
By the time Toney reached the 15-yard line, Kelce already had his hand in the air to celebrate. He knew Benford and Rapp had no chance to catch Toney as he motored toward the pylon.
“I’ve seen him do that (kind of play) before,” defensive end George Karlaftis said. “He’s the greatest tight end of all-time. He’s going to do stuff like that that changes the game.”
The Chiefs trailed 20-17 at the time, but that moment of brilliance from Kelce, which came with 1:12 remaining, seemed destined to decide the game — and get played on a loop next to his bust inside the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, one day.
“It’s a legendary moment, man,” Mahomes said. “It’s not taught. It’s something only a couple people in this world would even think about doing ... making the catch, making a couple dudes miss, then throwing the ball across the field to another guy and scoring a touchdown in that moment.”
Officially, of course, it never happened.
Despite what the more than 73,000 people inside Arrowhead Stadium witnessed and millions more watched on TV, there was no play because Toney was flagged for offensive offside — a rare call in football, much less the NFL.
But it was no less of a marvel.
“That’s just Trav being Trav,” running back Jerick McKinnon said. “You ask anybody in the locker room, that’s practice right there. We do that at practice. It’s more of a lateral at practice than a throw, but helluva play, man. In my opinion, play of the year, whether it counted or didn’t count.”
Linebacker Willie Gay Jr. called it “an historic play that got wiped out.”
Replays conclusively showed that half of Toney’s foot was in the neutral zone, so he was offside, but that Mahomes remained steamed well after the game.
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“I saw the picture,” Mahomes said. “He probably is barely offsides, but for him to take the game into his hands over a call like that that didn’t affect the play at all — at all, it didn’t affect anything — it’s just tough.”
Mahomes continued, “You wait until there’s a minute left in the game to make a call like that? It’s tough, man,” Mahomes said. “Loss for words, man. It’s tough.”
An animated Mahomes was caught on camera barking at officials during the closing seconds and again after the game when shaking hands with his Buffalo counterpart, Josh Allen.
“It's one of those things we don't want to be overly technical on,” referee Carl Cheffers, whose crew worked the game, said after the game. “But when in his alignment he's lined up over the ball, that's something that we are going to call as offensive offside. That's what the down judge saw.”
Mahomes and coach Andy Reid seemed particularly irked that Toney was never warned about his alignment earlier in the game.
“I’m very disappointed that it ended the way it did,” Reid said. “I never use any of this as excuses, but normally I get a warning before anything like that happens in a big game. A bit embarrassing in the National Football League for that to take place.”
Rookie wide receiver Rashee Rice confirmed that it’s customary for a receiver to check his alignment with the official at the line of scrimmage and that they’ll help ensure you’re lined up legally.
“Normally, as soon as you line up, you look over to the ref and they let you know if you need to scoot back or scoot up, depending on if you let them know whether you’re on the ball or not,” Rice said. “I’m not sure exactly what happened on the other side of the ball.”
It’s unclear if Toney checked with the down judge before the snap and he wasn’t available for an interview in the locker room after the loss.
Cheffers noted that such a courtesy is indeed typical, but noted that “if it's egregious enough, it would be beyond a warning.”
“If they looked for alignment advice, certainly we are going to give it to them,” Cheffers said. “But ultimately, they are responsible for wherever they line up and, certainly, no warning is required, especially if they are lined up so far offsides where they're actually blocking our view of the ball. We would give them some sort of a warning if it was anywhere close, but this particular one is beyond a warning."
Still, after Marquez Valdes-Scantling got roughed up on a deep post in the closing minutes of a loss last Sunday at Green Bay with no foul called, Kansas City couldn’t help but feel salty.
“It’s obviously tough to swallow,” Mahomes said. “Not only for me, but just for football in general. To take away greatness like that, for a guy like Travis to make a play like that. Who knows if we win, but I know as fans you want to see the guys on the field decide the game. That’s why last week I didn’t say anything about the flag that didn’t get called on Marquez. They’re human, man; they make mistakes, but it’s every week we’re talking about something.”
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