No doubt the Chiefs' 17-14 victory over Atlanta on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium will be remembered best by its preposterous ending: The Falcons were perched to tie it in the final seconds on a relatively sure thing, a field-goal attempt by Younghoe Koo, who had made 27 in a row and 35 of 36 overall this season ... only to have this 39-yard attempt veer wide right.
It will be remembered, too, as the day the Chiefs sealed the AFC's No. 1 seed in the postseason and won a 14th regular-season game for the first time in franchise history to bookend the year with a Super Bowl triumph and a seemingly fertile opportunity to repeat.
But remember it for something just as indelible and revealing:
For the seventh straight time now, by a total of 28 points, this was a gritty, resilient, one-possession victory by a team increasingly adding that element to its repertoire.
And perhaps no one exemplified that more than tight end Travis Kelce.
On a day he made yet more NFL statistical history, Kelce demonstrated all the dimensions he is to this team by repeatedly coming through in pivotal moments, even as he was fending off unspecified injuries that left him at times wincing and limping onto the field late in the game.
"You've got to walk a few things off; you've got to kind of regroup, let the discomfort and pain settle and just go back out there and keep playing, knowing that the guy next to you ... could be going through something similar," said Kelce, who had seven catches for 98 yards and a touchdown on Sunday to become the first tight end with 100 receptions two seasons in a row and set a single-season record for yards receiving at the position. "And I love being there for these guys, I love being there for the coaching staff, for the organization, for Chiefs Kingdom, when it matters most."
With Mahomes off-kilter much of the game Sunday, albeit offset some by his game-winning touchdown pass to Demarcus Robinson, you could say Kelce was there for him, too.
Maybe in a new sort of way, one that adds fuel to a case for Kelce as offensive player of the year, one who now has 105 catches for 1,416 yards with a game to go that he may or may not play in as coach Andy Reid determines who to sit before a bye week.
But the dynamics also were very much in the way to which we've become accustomed when it comes to two guys who seem to have their own wavelength.
Maybe that never will be better-expressed than it was between them during a mic'd up exchange last postseason:
Kelce at one point tells Mahomes, "I don't understand how you know what I'm doing" there.
When Mahomes responded, "I knew you were going to turn," Kelce laughed and said, "There is nothing telling you I was going to do that, and the ball was in the air before I did it."
Same as it ever was.
Kelce calls it a matter of trust, reflecting "a lot of hard work put in, a lot of time spent and just being on the same page as Pat." Coach Andy Reid reiterated that "they've got a special thing going, and Patrick banked on it down the stretch. And he came through."
When it mattered most all along the way, in fact.
While Reid was speaking more broadly when he said Kelce "keeps it alive" for the Chiefs, that was an apt description of his role on Sunday.
Consider the 36-yard reception, on third and 10, on the game-winning drive, followed shortly by another of 16 yards.
And the first touchdown of the game, late in the first half, on a 4-yard pass from Mahomes just after Mahomes had adapted to find him on third and 1 and convert the first down.
And even early in the third quarter, when Harrison Butker's 53-yard field goal was set up by Mahomes' 25-yard pass to Kelce on third and 11 while Mahomes was free to improvise with a flag down on Atlanta.
All on a day Kelce made history ... but made something more, too: another bold statement of how integral he is to this team.
"Also, let's all say it: CONGRATS KELCE!!! @tkelce is incredible on the field, great in the locker room, and gives back in the community," as injured teammate Mitchell Schwartz put it on Twitter.
"He's what football, and life, is all about. Special guy."
One who both stands atop some NFL history, with more to come, and yet is completely grounded within a team he has come to embody.
