Has the Patrick Mahomes-Travis Kelce duo lost its spark already? As impossible as that sentence might have sounded a while back, recent patterns have painfully pointed toward the same. The biggest example: In the Chiefs’ Week 3 matchup against the New York Giants, Mahomes failed to connect with his most-trusted tight end on two consecutive plays during their second drive, rather painfully.

During the first play, the quarterback missed a wide-open Kelce standing in front of him. He kept looking around to throw the ball to someone else before finally launching it toward the TE. Then, on the second play, Mahomes had launched a pass down the sideline, a ball that sailed past Kelce’s right ear, bounced off a defender’s back and and hit the turf with a thud. “That’s playground right there,” a bewildered Cris Collinsworth said during the broadcast without mincing words. “We made that one in 5th grade.”

NFL insider Josina Anderson hit the nail on the coffin further, tweeting: “What happened here? Pat Mahomes & Travis Kelce still trying to find their connection. #Chiefs.”

Unfortunately, that similar kind of “playground” mistake has been a recurring theme so far this season. During the team’s 20-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles at Arrowhead Stadium (the irony!), Travis Kelce was singlehandedly responsible for the most important and controversial moment of the game.

The Chiefs were trailing 13-10 at the beginning of the fourth quarter when, on second-and-goal from the 6, Mahomes threw a pass to Kelce. The veteran tight end, however, seemed a “little late in getting his head around”. The ball bounced off his hands directly into Eagles safety Andrew Mukuba’s possession—a mistake that subsequently gave the Eagles a two-score lead, and tanked the Chiefs’ winning probability from 53% to 24% as per rbsdm.com. The good thing is, despite the evident loss in chemistry on the gridiron, the duo is making sure to stick together off it.

For starters, after the Eagles loss, Mahomes openly defended his friend. “I think I threw it just a tad too early, just trying to put it on [Tavis’s] body low before that hole player got there,” Mahomes said in the Chiefs’ postgame press conference. “I think if I can put it more on his body and not so far out in front of him, then he can catch it, take the hit and get in the end zone. You know, whenever you’re in those tight quarters like that, you wanna get it to him, especially a bigger guy, more on his body where he can catch it and brace for that contact.”

Yet, there’s no denying that cracks in the foundation are clearly visible. For a team that has averaged just 20 points per game through its first three weeks, Mahomes’ 22-of-37 for 224 yards, and Kelce’s 4 receptions for a paltry 26 yards vs the Giants glaringly stand out. Fans have noticed that, too.

The kingdom speaks after Patrick Mahomes & Travis Kelce’s faux pas

“This game is putting me to sleep. Two completely inept offenses trading punts. Chiefs has nobody on offense at skill positions. And I mean nobody. #snf @Chiefs #chiefskingdom,” one fan tweeted, capturing the collective yawn of a nation.

Another, after watching Kelce’s straight-line run, put it simply: “Kelce should have made a play for the ball. That would have been PI if he’d have tried.” The collective frustration had one fan tweeting, “Pat acting like Travis & Taylor didn’t invite him to the wedding 🤦🏾‍♂️🤣.” The humor is the only way to process a player of Kelce’s stature getting called out for “not knowing how to read a defense.”

Then there was one social media user who blasted, “Like Collinsworth said…this a play you make on the playground…in with grade. True,” while another reaction read, “Chiefs just aren’t very good and Mahomes has moments where he looks good but not consistently. And the bad moments are starting to pile up”. And if that was not all, a fan wrote, “Kelce head is not in it anymore”. Hopefully, by the time the next weekend rolls by, opinions will change.