Travis Kelce made one of the best, most unexpected plays we’ve seen on a football field this year and it was all called back on an unfortunate Kadarius Toney offside.
On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs hosted the Buffalo Bills in a tight AFC rivalry matchup. The Chiefs were able to battle back from being down 14 points early but were losing 20-17 with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter. Patrick Mahomes dropped back on a second and 10 from just past midfield and threw a pass to his most reliable target, Kelce, for a pretty hefty gain.
But then, the magic happened.
Instead of getting tackled, at about the 20-yard line Kelce threw a lateral pass back to Toney, who waltzed into the end zone for a touchdown. Incredible, right? It would have been, except Toney was penalized for being offside before the play began and the touchdown was negated as a result.
Play was called back but can't believe Kelce tried this 😮
📺: #BUFvsKC on CBS
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/pWMED8SAQa pic.twitter.com/LREwwhaQ1N— NFL (@NFL) December 11, 2023
That’s an absolutely BRUTAL penalty to take in that situation. Toney’s mindless penalty may have well cost the Chiefs the game, given that the Bills would have needed to respond with a touchdown of their own to win. Not only that, because of the penalty, we all lost out on just how awesome Kelce’s off-the-cuff lateral touchdown was! Instead of being a highlight reel touchdown from one of football’s best talents, it will forever be relegated to a what-if scenario.
NFL fans were understandably bummed after Kelce’s bonkers lateral touchdown was called off because of Toney’s boneheaded offside penalty.
TRAVIS KELCE REALLY DID THAT… And it was called back from a TONEY offsides… and it was because he lined up offsides…. Come on….
— Ted Nguyen (@FB_FilmAnalysis) December 11, 2023
Travis Kelce makes an all-time play to almost literally hand Toney a touchdown and Toney's inability to *line up onside* negates it. Can't make this stuff up.
— Ben Gretch (@YardsPerGretch) December 11, 2023
Kelce with an absolute dime of a lateral to Toney for a touchdown
All to be called back for Toney being offsides
Damn
— Football (@BostonConnr) December 11, 2023
Idc what anybody says that play to kelce was wild lol
— Ty Hill (@cheetah) December 11, 2023
travis kelce literally just did the coolest thing i’ve ever seen in a football game (i don’t watch much football) and it didn’t count???
— Molly Morrison (@mollyhannahm) December 11, 2023
Travis Kelce doing the coolest possible thing only to have it ruined by Kadarius Toney lining up offsides is a perfect encapsulation of the Chiefs right now.
— Peter Bukowski (@Peter_Bukowski) December 11, 2023
Taylor Swift is gonna drop a surprise Reputation vault track tonight that’s actually about Kadarius Toney
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) December 11, 2023
Taylor is gonna write a song about one of the great plays ever being taken away from Travis Kelce
— Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) December 11, 2023
That play broke my heart. Mahomes to Kelce to Toney was just gorgeous. A WR lining up a couple inches from his spot brings it all back.
— Sterling Holmes (@HomestretchKC) December 11, 2023
Taylor Swift is going to subtly destroy Kadarius Toney on the next album.
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) December 11, 2023
