Jason Kelce described his first career win over brother Travis as “bittersweet”, being less than satisfied with the Philadelphia Eagles’ performance in their 21-17 victory against the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Eagles trailed 17-7 at the halfway point of Monday’s Super Bowl LVII rematch, with neither offense faring particularly well as Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes threw interceptions on back-to-back drives in the second quarter.
It was the Chiefs who struggled in the second half, however, failing to score a single point as two rushing touchdowns from Hurts moved the Eagles to 9-1.
Even Travis Kelce was affected by KC’s offensive downturn. Having made his fifth touchdown catch of the season at the end of the second quarter, the tight end made a key red-zone fumble with the Chiefs 17-14 up in the fourth, with the Eagles going ahead two possessions later.
It meant Philadelphia center Jason Kelce scored his first career win against his brother, and against his former coach Andy Reid.
However, the 36-year-old would have preferred a more polished performance, saying: “Listen, I’m really happy.
“I would have probably been happier if we would have put together a really dominant performance offensively and played great. I think the fact that we didn’t do that makes it a little bittersweet.
THE MAIN THING pic.twitter.com/K8ABVUgrWD
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) November 21, 2023
“I think the defense is largely why we won the game today. Hats off to those guys, and I’m certainly happy to be 9-1.”
Quarterback Hurts finished 14-of-22 with 150 passing yards and an interception but made the difference with his two rushing scores, tying Cam Newton for the most career games with two scores on the ground by a QB (10).
He agreed with Kelce’s assessment but praised Philadelphia’s character, saying: “I don’t think we played clean tonight. I don’t think we played to our standard – nowhere near our standard.
“But I think the thing that you can’t test or quantify is the resilience that a team has, the ability to persevere and see through things and overcome things, and this team has that.
“When you win games like we’ve won games, that builds a ton of character. We’re kind of in character development mode with the games we’ve played and how we’ve won. It can only serve us for great things in the future.”
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The Chiefs, meanwhile, slipped behind the Baltimore Ravens for the top seed in the AFC, having seen issues with their receivers continue.
Marquez Valdes-Scantling dropped a perfectly placed pass inside the Eagles’ 5 on KC’s final possession, and the team’s wide receivers are dropping 9% of passes thrown their way this year.
Coach Reid knows those are the kind of mistakes they need to cut out in order to replicate last year’s success, saying: “Guys that I’ve seen catch before didn’t necessarily make the catch.
“These are good players and we are okay. We’ve just got to get that straight.”
The Eagles return to action against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, while the Chiefs face a divisional rival in Week 12 as they take on the 5-6 Las Vegas Raiders.
Football is family pic.twitter.com/rha1E2Pwdj
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) November 21, 2023
