Sloppy Chiefs stumble from 2025 starting block, lose to Chargers in Brazil

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A slow start, a crucial injury, a penalty-prone offensive line, a porous secondary, a missed extra point — there was plenty of blame to spread around Friday at Arena Corinthians, where the Kansas City Chiefs stubbed their toe against the AFC West Los Angeles Chargers in the 2025 season opener in São Paulo, Brazil.

It was a frustrating night for the Chiefs.

“I’ve got to make sure I get my team in a better state there coming out and playing with more emotion,” coach Andy Reid said. “We were a little flat in that first half and it cost us.”

Cameras caught Travis Kelce giving right tackle Jawaan Taylor, who was flagged three times, an earful early in the second half.

After Justin Herbert's 19-yard scramble moments before the two-minute warning iced a 27-21 win for the Chargers, those same cameras caught a heated exchange between Chris Jones and Drue Tranquill, who had two of Kansas City's three sacks in the loss.

Jones had no comment about the outburst after the game.

Herbert was magnificent, finishing 25 of 34 for 318 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. He also had seven carries for 32 yards rushing.

The Chiefs went 12-0, including the postseason, in one-score games last season en route to a third straight Super Bowl appearance.

Now, they’ll need to beat the Philadelphia Eagles in a rematch of that Super Bowl LIX loss to avoid an 0-2 start in the home opener Sept. 14 at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.

“It was a great experience,” Patrick Mahomes said of playing in Brazil. “Obviously, not the result we wanted, but it was really cool.”

Kansas City dropped to 10-3 in season openers under Andy Reid and, after an eight-game win streak in first games of the season, has lost two of the last three. The Chiefs also lost 21-20 to Detroit in 2023.

THREE CHEERS

THE FIRE DRILL: First, credit Noah Gray for realizing that his momentum had been stopped in bounds, then racing the ball toward the umpire, who was able to place the ball quickly as the final seconds of the first half ticked away.

Gray got knocked out of bounds with 14 seconds left and had the ball back to the middle of the field at 10 seconds.

Next, shower Dave Toub, the special-teams ace up Andy Reid’s sleeve for parts of the last three decades, with love for having the field-goal unit ready to perfectly execute a “fire drill.”

Running onto the field, Wanya Morris and Mike Caliendo raised a hand and wiped the other down the front of their shirt, signaling they were eligible receivers as part of a five-player swap to get the field-goal unit in place.

With 2 seconds remaining, James Winchester fired the snap back to Matt Araiza, who set the ball for Harrison Butker to drill a 59-yard bomb as time expired.

The score, which was set up when Chargers rookie running back Omarion Hampton ran out of bounds on third down with 49 seconds before a Cameron Dicker field goal established a two-score lead, pulled the Chiefs within 13-6 at halftime.

MAHOMES RUNS WILD: The lone first-quarter highlight on offense for the Chiefs was Patrick Mahomes’ 11-yard scramble. It accounted for one-third of Kansas City’s offensive output in the period, but he really ran wild in the third quarter.

After the defense forced a three-and-out to begin the second half, Mahomes started and finished an 11-play, 80-yard touchdown march with 11-yard runs, the latter capped with a dive to the pylon for the Chiefs’ first touchdown of the season.

In between, Mahomes added a 15-yard scramble, putting his shoulder into cornerback Donte Jackson along the sideline as he finished the run, and completed 5 of 6 passes for 43 yards as the offense overcame two penalties by Jawaan Taylor, a holding penalty and his second false start of the game.

“Pat’s always going to get his runs in,” Reid said. “That’s just how that goes. We don’t plan for those.”

Mahomes' touchdown drew Kansas City within 13-12 after Butker’s missed extra point, which loomed large when the Chiefs subsequently failed on a two-point conversion and ultimately never managed to draw even with Los Angeles.

DON’T TAKE MAHOMES FOR GRANTED: Whether it was the third-and-5 Superman conversion or the fourth-down, 40-yard heave that gave Kansas City a chance to rally in the closing minutes, Mahomes didn’t disappoint the Sã0 Paulo crowd.

He finished 24 of 39 for 258 yards with a touchdown, with six carries for 57 yards, including an 11-yard touchdown scramble, on the ground.

But he played with more swagger in the second half.

The Superman throw to JuJu Smith-Schuster — as he scrambled forward in the pocket, got tripped up and shot-putted the ball over three Chargers defenders while falling and essentially parallel to the ground for a crucial conversion — was vintage Mahomes.

So was the 49-yard completion on fourth-and-7 off a wild scramble to his right with a burly pass rusher bearing down.

Mahomes chucked the ball across his body and found a wide-open Hollywood Brown, who finished with game-highs of 10 catches for 99 yards, deep downfield to keep Kansas City’s flickering hopes alive.

The drive ended with a field goal that made it a one-score game.

Mahomes also hooked up with Kelce on a 37-yard walk-in touchdown, a specialty against the Chargers, early in the fourth quarter.

It looked as if Mahomes would get a chance to win it, but Herbert’s 19-yard run on third-and-14 with 2:14 remaining after the Chiefs had used their final timeout sealed Kansas City's fate.

“Tough day,” said Jones, who finished with two tackles. “I kind of took an inside move. I put the blame on me, probably could have contained better.”

THREE JEERS

CROSSED WIRES: On the game’s initial third down, an already depleted wide-receiving corps took another major blow when Xavier Worthy got knocked from the game with a shoulder injury — by Travis Kelce.

The slightly built Worthy, who is giving up 85 pounds to Kelce, got knocked off his feet and landed hard on his right shoulder as the two collided on dueling shallow crossing routes.

He stayed down momentarily before walking off on his own power and heading to the locker room before being ruled out for the remainder of the game.

Kansas City already is without Rashee Rice, who was suspended for the first six games of the season.

But the crossed wires didn’t stop there.

Quentin Johnston scored off a crossing route on the Chargers’ opening drive when Drue Tranquill ran into Trent McDuffie, giving Justin Herbert a wide-open target in the end zone for the go-ahead score.

THE PASS COVERAGE: Kansas City has developed a reputation for physical, sticky pass coverage, but that wasn’t the case in São Paulo, where Los Angeles burned the Chiefs’ man coverage and patiently picked apart its zone coverage.

At various times, the Chargers exploited Nick Bolton, Chamarri Conner, Bryan Cook and Jaden Hicks in coverage.

But when Spagnulo opted for zone coverage, Ladd McConkey and Keenan Allen found seams and moved the chains, settling into zones and making life easy for Justin Herbert.

Hicks, who is stepping into a starting role with Justin Reid now in New Orleans, allowed touchdowns to Allen, who had seven catches for 68 yards and a touchdown, and Johnston, who finished with five catches for 79 yards and two scores.

McConkey added six catches for 74 yards.

FIRST-QUARTER OFFENSE: The Chiefs managed a paltry 33 yards on offense in the opening quarter.

Kansas City rushed for 6 yards on four carries aside from Patrick Mahomes’ 11-yard scramble, while Mahomes finished the first quarter 2 for 7 for a meager 16 yards, lost his top wide receiver from 2024 on the opening drive and saw Hollywood Brown drop a third-down conversion.

Meanwhile, the Chargers racked up 145 yards and led 10-0 early in the second quarter after a Dicker field goal.

THE IMPORTANT STUFF

INJURY REPORT: Reid did not provide an update on the severity of Worthy’s shoulder injury.

“We’ll know tomorrow once we get back and do an MRI,” he said.

Linebackers Drue Tranquill and Nick Bolton, along with rookie defensive end Ashton Gillotte, needed attention from the trainers during the game.

“But they all finished, and they should be OK as we go forward,” Reid said.

WAS TAYLOR SWIFT AT THE GAME?: Despite pregame rumors swirling that Taylor Swift, who got engaged to Travis Kelce last month, made the trip to Sao Paulo for her fiancé’s season opener, she wasn’t in Brazil, according to TMZ.

Kansas City is 19-4 when Swift shows up, so it’s usually a good omen when she’s there. The Chiefs have won 14 of the last 15 games she attends, though that one loss came in Super Bowl LIX seven months ago and snapped a more than yearlong winning streak.

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