KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Travis Kelce blames himself for the slow start to the season.

“I took that on myself,” Kelce said on the weekly podcast “New Heights,” which he co-hosts with his brother Jason. “I didn’t play my best and that spreads when you don’t get it right, and I need to get this thing right.”

Kelce has four catches for 39 yards in the Kansas City Chiefs’ first two games of the season.

Kelce, who turns 35 next month, is one of the most prolific pass catchers in NFL history, with his streak of consecutive 1,000-yard seasons ending at just seven last year when he sat out the final game of the regular season after the Chiefs clinched their playoff spot.

He said many factors have to be right for a receiver to catch a large number of passes.

“If you want to catch the football, (1) it has to be the right play, (2) the coverage has to be right, and (3) everyone up front and back has to do their job by running their routes. …

“For some reason, things haven’t been going so well for me in the last two games. That’s football.”

In the past, Kelce has made his frustration clear when he hasn’t caught many passes. During Super Bowl LVIII in February, for example, an angry Kelce yelled at coach Andy Reid on the sidelines and nearly knocked him off his feet when he collided with him.

Kelce said that wouldn’t happen this time.

“I’m not going to sit here and be mad about it,” Kelce said. “I used to get really, really mad and almost lose it a lot of times when I wasn’t successful because I knew that was what I was asking of myself. I just like playing the game at such a high level that it’s hard for me to deal with mediocrity or statistics that reflect that.”

“Going forward, it’s just a question of, ‘How can I be better in these moments? What’s the problem? Am I not getting to my routes fast enough?’ or whatever the situation may be.”