Miami Gardens, Florida
Here comes Travis Kelce, hugging Nick Bolton and exclaiming, “Three and oh, baby!” Across the way, Chris Jones is joking with George Karlaftis about how he set up his first career interception.
“Hit it up in the air and told George to go get it,” Jones said.
Which isn’t as easy as it sounds, Karlaftis said with a laugh.
“I don’t have good hands. …” he said. “I can swat the ball; I can’t use them to catch them.”
This was the playful vibe and stuff of the soundtrack in the borderline-jubilant Chiefs locker room on Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium, where they fended off Miami 24-10 after a slog that felt in doubt far longer than anticipated against a rebuilding 0-2 team.
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) scores a touchdown against the Miami Dolphins during an NFL Week 3 game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. Nathan Ray Seebeck IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Pardon the Chiefs if they weren’t marinating in the paranoid critiques that dominated social media during the game on Sunday. If you followed along in that space, you could hardly avoid seeing takes suggesting this game wasn’t merely flawed but downright infuriating.
Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid looks at his play sheet during an NFL Week 3 game against the Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. Sam Navarro IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
From the inside looking out, though, the perspective was considerably more rational and upbeat.
Plenty to fix and grow on, to be sure, particularly on defense.
But maybe not quite the end of the world as we know it.
And certainly nothing to apologize for.
“We’re definitely going to get chewed out, for sure,” rookie cornerback Mansoor Delane said, smiling. “But at the end of the day, they did only score 10 points.”
And at the end of the day, this was a substantial reminder that every game takes on its own dynamic in the NFL — and that winning still is the only thing even when it’s not thoroughly dominant.
The perfect is the enemy of the good, after all.
Or as Kelce translated it: “Don’t let the imperfections hide some of the excitement and happiness. We’re 3-0, and it’s hard to win in this league. I’m proud of everybody in here for getting to this point.”
Cringeworthy and worrisome as some of the imperfections were, especially the Chiefs’ inability to contain the Dolphins on third downs (they converted 8 of 15), they don’t dictate what comes next unless the Chiefs refuse to learn from the issues and take measures to get better.
Staying static virtually has never happened with Steve Spagnuolo’s unit since he took over as the defensive coordinator in 2019, and it’s not likely to happen this season as he’s just beginning to stir together a lineup with six or seven new starters depending on the week.
Then there’s the real lesson of the day, especially after what happened last season as the Chiefs plummeted from five Super Bowl berths in six seasons to a 6-11 record.
A contrast largely embodied in one stat in particular: A team that went from winning an NFL-record 17 straight one-score games went 1-9 in such contests.
This very much resembled one of those until Mahomes hit Kelce with an 11-yard touchdown pass with 2 minutes 55 seconds left to account for the final score and virtually seal it.
“We’re not going to be mad about winning,” Mahomes said.
Even if Mahomes lamented some elements of the game, he’d later add, “I wouldn’t say I feel disappointed. Like, I’m happy for the win. I think last year kind of taught me that you can’t be disappointed when you win football games.
“You have to enjoy every single one of them, enjoy the plane ride back, everything like that. But I know we can be better. … If we want to get to where we want to go, we have to continue to get better and better.”
No doubt that looks like more of a challenge for the defense than the offense, which appears more energized than it has in years thanks to the arrival of Kenneth Walker III (who had a quieter day Sunday with 70 yards on 18 carries but still is averaging 120 a game), the resurgence of Kelce (who also had a 48-yard reception to open the game) and Mahomes already returning to the top of his game after season-ending knee surgery in December.
On Sunday, he completed his first 11 passes and finished 20 of 24 for 246 yards and touchdowns with one interception — a deflection off Rashee Rice after Mahomes threw low and behind him.
Just the same …
“Obviously, we didn’t play to our standard that we would hold for ourselves,” said Mahomes, who reckoned a young team could learn from playing on the road and in the day for the first time this season.
Pointing to a scoring sag mid-game between scoring almost immediately to start the game and putting it away late, he added, “Now it’s about learning the in-between.”
As for the defense, for the second straight game, all game, it failed to generate adequate pressure on the quarterback.
In this case, it mustered nary a sack of Malik Willis — who was sacked nine times in Miami’s first two games — and kept making crucial mistakes that enabled Miami to stay on the field.
Case in point: With the Dolphins facing third and 18 on their opening drive, cornerback Nohl Williams was called for illegal hands to the face to give Miami an automatic first down that ultimately enabled it to tie the game with a 17-play sequence that consumed 9:27.
That also played into Miami’s obvious strategy to chew clock to keep it close.
A strategy that largely worked (34:21 to 25:39) … but didn’t prevail.
“The NFL, they say, is week to week,” linebacker Drue Tranquill said with a smile. “And you’ve got to find ways to win. They’re different. Every single week.”
As they bantered with each other and a reporter, Karlaftis pointed to being 3-0 and said “we can’t ask for much more”
But Jones teased him about that, too, including that they need to generate sacks.
For his part, Karlaftis indeed allowed as how there’s a lot to clean up.
Even if all that mattered on this day was the result.
“It ain’t about the numbers,” he said, “it’s about the letters.”
As in “W.”
We’ll find out soon enough what it all means … at least through next week’s game at Las Vegas.
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Vahe Gregorian has been a sports columnist for The Kansas City Star since 2013 after 25 years at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He has covered a wide spectrum of sports, including 10 Olympics. Vahe was an English major at the University of Pennsylvania and earned his master’s degree at Mizzou.