- The Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LVII with a come-from-behind 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles.
- Tight end Travis Kelce led Kansas City’s receivers with 81 yards and a touchdown on six catches.
- He pointed out a wide-open teammate to QB Patrick Mahomes on the final drive to help the Chiefs win.
More often than not, Travis Kelce is on the receiving end of big plays for the Kansas City Chiefs.
But when his team needed a breakthrough Sunday night on football’s biggest stage, the superstar tight end found himself playing the role of facilitator rather than the target.
And he played it well.
With just under five minutes remaining in Super Bowl LVII and the score tied at 35-all, quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs faced second-and-7 with the ball on their own 28-yard line. Kelce and wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster were lined up side-by-side to Mahomes’ right, and on the snap, they ran parallel out routes just inside the first-down marker.
After making his cut, Kelce spotted a wide-open Smith-Schuster closer to the sideline and pointed him out to Mahomes mid-play. The eventual 2023 Super Bowl MVP got his star tight end’s message; he delivered a bullet straight into the wide receiver’s waiting hands.
NFL/YouTube
Not only did Smith-Schuster have a clear lane to pick up a first down and more, but his proximity to the sideline also allowed him to step out of bounds and stop the clock.
Kansas City slowly but surely worked its way up the field from there and eventually crept into Eagles territory. Then, after a controversial defensive-holding call with 1:54 remaining, the Chiefs were able to drain the clock before drilling a go-ahead field goal with mere seconds left in the game.
An 11-yard kick return and an incomplete pass later, Kansas City once again assumed the NFL throne for the second time in a four-year span.
REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Kelce finished the night as the Chiefs’ leading receiver, recording 81 yards and a touchdown on six catches. But it’s arguably a play that won’t show up on the box score — a simple point of his finger to a wide-open teammate — that proved most crucial to his team’s victory.
Check out the game-changing moment below:
—Seth Keysor (@RealMNchiefsfan) February 13, 2023
