National Football League

JuJu Smith-Schuster believes Call of Duty helped Chiefs win big over 49ers

Updated Oct. 24, 2022 7:05 p.m. ET

One week after mustering just 20 points in a home loss to the Buffalo Bills, the Kansas City Chiefs roared back with a 44-23 blowout of the San Francisco 49ers on the road Sunday.

Patrick Mahomes threw for over 400 yards in a game for the first time this season as top pass-catchers Travis Kelce, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Juju Smith-Schuster all put up big numbers of their own.

What sparked the offense?

Smith-Schuster later revealed what he credits for the quartet's phenomenal performance — their success at Call of Duty: Warzone.

"What got us the chemistry we needed this game – it was Friday night, it was me, Pat, Travis and [Marquez], and we were playing Call of Duty together," Smith-Schuster said. "We were playing Warzone, and we played three games. We won three games back-to-back… It's really hard to win a game in Warzone.

"You could just tell, the communication between all of us and the chemistry, it was like we were in the game. It just kind of led into [Sunday's] game, just kind of showed on the field."

Smith-Schuster then went on to explain how Warzone is played – several squads of video game characters land on an online map and collect weapons. The team left standing at the end of the battle royale wins.

Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs offense dismantle 49ers in Week 7

Mahomes said that he does not play Call of Duty as much as his teammates do, but did confirm he hopped on with them Friday because he "had a free night."

"Marquez and JuJu are really good [at Call of Duty]," Mahomes said. "Me and Travis are just all right. But we did our part, and we went 3-for-3 with three wins in Warzone, which I don't do often, so I felt pretty good about it going into the game.

"When you get away from the [team] facility, you're doing kid-like things, you're on the headset and talking and joking around and talking about the week, it gets your mind off of just football, and it's about building those relationships."

Those relationships flourished on the field at Levi's Stadium Sunday. Kelce celebrated National Tight End Day with six catches for 98 yards, while both Valdez-Scantling and Smith-Schuster had over 100 receiving yards each. Valdez-Scantling notched 111 yards on three catches, while Smith-Schuster had 124 yards and a touchdown on seven catches.

Smith-Schuster also copied soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo's iconic goal celebration after his score to cap off a good day.

Mahomes, meanwhile, completed 25 of 34 passes for 423 yards and threw three touchdowns and an interception.

Smith-Schuster, a longtime avid video game enthusiast, had a very appropriate analogy for his quarterbacks' performance Sunday – the Madden "Superstar X-Factor" mode.

"It was like fire," Smith-Schuster said. "I was like, ‘Dang, he’s on his X-Factor.'"