The first road trip of the 2026 regular season was an interesting one for the Kansas City Chiefs. The offense stood out with two touchdowns in two drives, and tight end Travis Kelce put the game on ice with a scoring touchdown in traffic.
Between the good start and the good ending, everything happened randomly. The Miami Dolphins offense kept the pressure on the Chiefs throughout the game by staying on the field and winning the battle for time of possession (34:21 to 25:39).
The Chiefs won 24-10, but the team’s leader on the field knows it could have been a more comfortable victory. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes spoke about the 14-point victory after the game at the podium.
“Obviously we didn’t play up to our standards, especially in that middle part offensively of the game,” Mahomes told reporters. “But we found a way to come together at the end of the game; we had two great drives early in the game, and now it’s about learning the jump ball.
“It will be a learning experience for us to know that we have to present our best game every time to win.”
Sandwiched between successful early drives and Kelce’s game-clinching score, the Chiefs offense scored just three points on five possessions. While Kansas City’s offense struggled, the defense failed to get off the field.
Mahomes highlighted the location and start time of the game as something affecting the NFL’s third-youngest team starting in Week 1.
“We’re young, we’re a young football team,” Mahomes reminded the media. “So the guys have to learn that. There will be learning experiences throughout the season; fortunately for us, we still won the football game.
“You have to continue to emphasize that it’s a long season,” Mahomes continued. “Just because we had the first two weeks, good weeks against two really good opponents, doesn’t mean you can relax when you play a game at noon. A lot of these guys, (it was) their first game at noon, were traveling for the first time and had that NFL experience, so for them to learn how to prepare to go faster, we can go out there and play better football.”
For most of the game, Mahomes led an offense averaging over seven yards per play. He averaged over 10 yards per pass. The numbers — labeled with a first-half interception thrown behind wide receiver Rashee Rice — made the 24-point outing disappointing.
“At the end of the day, we left a lot of stuff there,” Mahomes said. “We’re not going to be crazy about winning. We won the football game. Think about last year, we lost some of those games…we’re going to watch the tape carefully and find ways to improve for next week.”
“I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed; I’m happy with this win,” Mahomes said later. “I think last year taught me that you can’t be disappointed when you win football games…but I know we can be better. I know we can get better, and that’s going to take watching tape, going out and having a better week of practice, communicating with the whole offense and the whole team. We’re going to enjoy this win, but if we want to get to where we want to go, we have to continue to improve, and that’s what we’ll do.”
As Kansas City learns from its third straight win to start the season, Mahomes reflected on the benefits of a training camp led by head coach Andy Reid.
“We had a really good training camp, but it wasn’t always pretty,” Mahomes recalled. “We have a lot of young guys and we’re all building chemistry together. It wasn’t always the prettiest, but the guys pulled it off. I think that built that for games like this. It wasn’t always pretty on both sides of the ball…we have a lot to clean up, but I was proud of the way our guys finished the game.”
Gn headline
