New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce (Presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment)
The biggest NFL moment of the week was undoubtedly in the Chiefs-Bills game when Travis Kelce lateraled the ball to Kadarius Toney who ran it in for a touchdown. Then the play was called back as offensive offsides because Toney had lined up in the neutral zone and the Chiefs went on to lose 17-20 to the bills.
Everyone who watches the New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce (Presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment) podcast knew the Kelce Brothers would talk about it on this week’s episode and they certainly did. The discussion starts at the 41:00 minute mark of the video. Just hit ‘play’ below and it should start then. Or read on as I’ve transcribed much of the discussion below.
Jason and Travis Kelce Break Down ‘The Lateral’ … The NFL’s Biggest Moment of the Week
Travis Kelce: “When you’ve got younger players and guys who are trying to fill their roles and find their roles on the team… You go through these learning experiences. You know what I mean? Like I said, it’s all correctable. Everybody’s just got to focus and be (held) accountable for the guy next to them.”
And that was the biggest message today. Let’s get back to the details of doing everything the right way. And really focus in on everything that we can and be the best team Monday through Friday… Monday through Saturday. And see what kind of performance we go out there on Sunday with. So we’re just going to keep hacking away and chopping away in practice. And I got all the faith in the world we’re going to get back on track.
Jason Kelce: I guess we can get to the part that everybody wants to talk about which is the end of the game. You guys are down 20-17 with a little bit over a minute left in the game. 2nd and 10, you catch a 25yd crosser… Deep Cross. Running a Deep Cross. Catch it. Similar to the highlight to we talked about last week, (you) came back the way you came. Make a couple of guys miss.
And then for some reason in Travis Kelce’s brain… You decide to throw… Not just lateral, it’s being called a lateral… you full on threw a pass to Kadarius Toney… What was (he), maybe 25 yards away from you? I don’t know how in your head you’re like ‘I know what I’m about to do, I’m going to throw this ball completely across the field.’
And Toney was on board. Catches it. Runs it in to go up what probably would’ve put you up 5pts with a little bit over a minute left in the game. But lo and behold as everyone is aware now, there’s a flag on the play for Kadarius Toney being lined up in the neutral zone. I guess let’s talk about your part in it first, have you ever thrown that far of a lateral?
Travis Kelce: “No.”
Jason Kelce: “No.. You just whipped that out on the spot? It was like a perfect spiral. Like how did you go from having it tucked to throwing a perfect spiral that fast?”
Travis Kelce: “Honestly man… It was such a bang-bang (play). Like, I caught it, turned up field, saw the single high safety and I knew it was man coverage. I saw the single high safety coming down and knew I had broke the contain angle of the guy chasing me… And when I made the safety that coming down to try attack me, I knew I broke his angle, I knew it was one-on-one or two-on-one. I knew (Toney’s guy) was the only one left. The only guy on that side of the field. I knew KT was over there from the route he ran and I saw him out of the corner of my eye in a lateral position… In a position where I knew if I could get him the ball I knew he had space to score a touchdown.
Jason Kelce: “What did Andy (Reid) say when you got to the sidelines?”
Travis Kelce: “I didn’t talk to… I did not talk to Coach Reid. Dude, in retrospect, could you imagine if that got tipped??? “No no no nononononnonono. (I’d) just start sprinting over and then I could see Coach Reid in my head like ‘come here.'”
Jason goes on to say it was “insane creativity” from his brother. Travis adds that the lateral “was a little too close for comfort.” Calling it “extremely close” and saying “it’s probably something you won’t see (him) doing every single game.”
Travis Kelce On Kadarius Toney Lateral: ‘If we get that opportunity again…’
Taking it further, Travis Kelce said “I went up to KD today, man. And I told him ‘man we had that place f—— rocking.’ Ohhhh man, that crowd at Arrowhead was on FIRE after that play. I told him ‘hey man, we’re just going to have to do it again, Big Dog.'”
Travis Kelce: “you can say what you want about him being in the neutral zone here and there. He lined up like that all game and didn’t get warned. Blah blah blah. Don’t call it in that position… You can’t put it in the ref’s hands in that position. We’ve talked about plays like this all the time especially in critical moments. I love KT and if we get that opportunity again I’m going to throw that s— right to his chest again and hopefully he gets there.”
For more, just hit ‘play’ on the video above.