The Early Years Tournament: Round 1, Heat 11.
 

Heat 11 brings us a couple of games where the Chiefs humbled division opponents. Which do you prefer - a close game where Mahomes and Kelce dominated, or a blowout where Mahomes and Kelce dominated?

2021 - Week 15 - W 34-28 over LAC
https://www.pro-football-reference.c...2112160sdg.htm
Chiefs 9-4 / Chargers 8-5

The Chargers tried to keep the ball out of the Chiefs' hands, running the ball 39 times, going for five fourth downs, and holding the Chiefs time of possession to only 28:12 even including overtime. They successfully held Mahomes to 410 yards and a one-minute drive to tie it up before the game-winning overtime drive. Tyreek came through with 148 yards, but the big story was Travis Kelce. He had his best-ever receiving day (so far) with 191 yards and two touchdowns. (This is the 7th-best single-game receiving total by a tight end in NFL history.) He capped this by taking a pass over the middle in overtime, surrounded by defenders, and wove 29 yards through them after the catch for the winning touchdown WITHOUT BEING TOUCHED. Travis Kelce is magical. The Chiefs' defense had trouble getting to the passer with Chris Jones on the Covid list, but Hitchens had an interception and 8 tackles, and Bolton had 14 tackles, and Sorensen, Niemann, and Wharton all made big fourth-down plays on goal-line stands. (This was also the game where the Chargers TE got the bad concussion, so mature audiences only on the highlight video.) Also, just for fun, look at the Chiefs' pursuit on a routine running play at 3:30 in the video.

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2021 - Week 10 - W 41-14 over LVR
https://www.pro-football-reference.c...2111140rai.htm
Chiefs 5-4 / Raiders 5-3

Wait, the Raiders had a better record than the Chiefs in the second half of the season? That's unfathomable. But the reason is that the Raiders hadn't played the Chiefs yet. With 406 yards passing and 5 touchdown passes, along with going 3 of 3 on fourth-down attempts, Mahomes taught the Raiders who's boss. Tommy Townsend added another 16 yards with a bullet pass to Kemp on a fake punt. Darrel Williams and Kelce both had 100+ yard games, and Darrel made a great contested catch for a long touchdown. Our leading tackler was, in a surprising twist, Armani Watts. This game also features the bizarre-looking "lateral fumble" by Desean Jackson where he forgot where the end zone was. (Fenton knocked the ball out on a great play.) Jarran Reed had a nice sack and directly caused an interception. This game was an exhibition match by the middle of the third quarter.

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It’s the Chargers game for me. That one was competitive, we forced three turnovers on downs, had that weird pass that Mahomes dirted to Hardman on 4th down, and Mahomes & Kelce took over the 4th quarter and OT. I counted about 120 yards for Kelce in the 4th and OT alone, plus he had that epic walk-off TD. You can tell by his reaction that even he didn’t think he was going to score there.

The Raiders game was a nice beat down. We bullied the hell out of them in their house, which is always fun. This one was also the Darrel Williams game. His TD catch over the DB was awesome stuff, as was the “you’re too little” celebration.. fun, but not one that’s meant to go the distance in this tourney.

I almost mentioned that this game was notable because Mahomes threw a bad pass, but I figured no one would believe me.