Chiefs blow double-digit lead to Jags for third loss of the season
Kansas City is once again under .500 after a costly pick-six and 109 yards-worth of penalties undo them.
The Kansas City Chiefs (2-3) got off to a scorching start against the Jacksonville Jaguars (4-1), but their lead dissipated about as quickly as they jumped out to it.
A Travis Kelce touchdown and a Patrick Mahomes-designed run got the Chiefs out to a 14-0 lead minutes into the second quarter before the Jaguars rallied for 21 unanswered.
Both teams exchanged leads or tied the ball game four times from there in a back-and-forth battle before Jacksonville made it a 31-28 win over the Chiefs. It was their first win over Kansas City since 2009.
“Obviously, it sucks,” Mahomes told reporters. “You let a game slip away. Credit to them. They played hard. They played hard the entire game and they got a lot of good football players and they closed it out there at the end and so it still sucks when you get a lead like that and you’re not able to hold it for the rest of the game.”
Kansas City seemed to have completed a comeback when running back Kareem Hunt punched one in to take a 28-24 lead with 1:45 to go. Head coach Andy Reid was asked after the game if he felt that they scored too early.
“Yeah, listen, that’s a tough ask,” Reid told reporters. “It’s the number one defense in the National Football League we’re playing against, so we want to make sure we get in the endzone. I have full trust in our defense that they, that and special teams take care of business and so we score … I didn’t want to sit there and have to kick a field goal.”
Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who turned 26 today, had other plans.
On a drive that began on their own 40, after a mishap from Harrison Butker, who sliced the kickoff out of bounds, Lawrence marched his team down the field against a tired Chiefs defense.
On the initial set of downs, linebacker Leo Chenal and defensive end George Karlaftis split a sack to force the Jaguars into a third and seven, but Lawrence then got the chunk play he needed.
It was Brian Thomas Jr., who had struggled mightily this season to connect with Lawrence, whom he found for 33 yards down the right sideline with cornerback Jaylen Watson in coverage, inches away from making the play.
“They got a good starting point at the 40,” Reid told reporters. “We got to do a better job there with the kick and then when you talk about a game of inches, it’s a game of inches and 35 (Watson) had a chance right there. He was right in perfect position. He was off by an inch, and they made the catch, and that happens.”
With the ball at the Kansas City 24, wide receiver Dyami Brown took a short pass 13 yards to inch them closer.
A few plays later, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s unit had the Jaguars in a third and 13. For a split second, the game appeared to be over after Bryan Cook intercepted a tipped pass, before it was ultimately called back after safety Chamarri Conner was tagged for pass interference in the endzone.
What happened next was reminiscent of Andrew Luck and Marcus Mariota’s playoff touchdown runs that have haunted the Chiefs in the past.
From the one-yard line, Lawrence tripped over his center’s feet, falling twice, before getting up and scrambling it in for the game-winning touchdown in the final seconds of the game.
Despite the slow-developing play, the Kansas City defensive front failed to rally in time to keep Lawrence out of the endzone. There were over 20 seconds left on the clock, but Jacksonville was out of timeouts and it could have been a couple-yard loss.
“I thought multiple times we had him,” defensive tackle Chris Jones told reporters. “We’ve just got to finish. We’ve got to finish. Multiple guys there that we’ve just got to finish that play. It was a fluke play for him to be able to break that many tackles. Yeah, I put it on us as a defense. We’ve got to finish. We’ve got to bring him down on that.”
The Chiefs did nothing with the remaining 23 seconds left on the clock.
The Jaguars came into the game known for being amongst the best in the league at taking the ball away. They had done so 13 times and were just the fifth team since 2002 to have three in each of the first four games.
They did not quite pull that one over on the Chiefs, but they sure made Mahomes and the offense pay for the one giveaway they did commit.
With the game tied at 14, Kansas City marched down the field for six minutes and 21 seconds for 65 yards on 11 plays. On a second and goal from the Jacksonville three, however, Mahomes did not see Devin Lloyd on his quick pass attempt to wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster.
Lloyd seized his fifth turnover of the season and took it 99 yards to the house in what was a 14-point swing, giving the Jaguars a 21-14 lead, rather than the Chiefs. Reid and Mahomes said after the game that Lloyd showed blitz before popping out into coverage.
“Yeah, honestly, they got me with the coverage they played,” Mahomes elaborated to reporters. “They played zero kind of inside that ten-yard area in previous games and they hadn’t shown the poppers with the linebackers popping out when they’re protected.
… Great call by them defensively and obviously a great play by 0 (Lloyd) getting the pick and then I got to find a way to tackle him or slow him down after he gets the interception.”
The Chiefs actually won the turnover battle with cornerback Trent McDuffie hauling in his first of the season, and linebacker Nick Bolton and Karlaftis generating a very similar point-swinging turnover.
When Kansas City had a 7-0 lead, Lawrence marched his team down to the one-yard line. On a quarterback sneak attempt, the former Clemson quarterback opted to go over the top, when Bolton punched the ball out mere inches from the goalline, before it landed in Karlaftis’ hands.
The Chiefs scored touchdowns off both of their turnovers.
When you look at the box score, it is hard to figure out how the Chiefs lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars, but there was one glaring issue.
Penalties came in bunches at opportunistic times. Kansas City committed 13 penalties for 109 yards, compared to Jacksonville’s four for 25 yards.
Most were either on special teams or defense, which severely flipped the field position game in the Jaguars’ favor.
The back-breaking ones were Conner’s defensive pass interference, which set them up at the one-yard line in the final minute, and multiple holding calls on solid kick returns.
“Whether I agree with them or don’t agree with them doesn’t matter; they called them,” Reid said. “You have that many penalties, you give up field position, you can out-stat them to death, but it doesn’t matter. It’s the score that matters and we’ve got to take care of business there.”
Kansas City did, in fact, out-stat them to death.
They outgained their opponent by over 150 yards, they were more efficient in the red zone, and they were just as efficient on third downs. Once again, they won the turnover battle and the offensive line continued to dominate, allowing zero sacks.
Mahomes had a season-high offensive output, yardage-wise. He went 29-of-41, for 318 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He also rushed for 60 yards, which led the team, and a touchdown.
The most impressive drive was the one that started on the three-yard line after Bolton’s forced fumble. Mahomes took them on a five-play, 97-yard drive that included a 33, 5, 16, 34 and 9-yard gain.
“Other than the interception and a couple penalties, I thought we did a great job offensively today,” Mahomes told reporters. “That’s a good defense and so we’ll continue to build on that. We’ll continue to get better at cleaning up the penalties and cleaning up the mistakes and the interception and turnovers and stuff like that, but I feel like we’re going in the right direction offensively. Now it’s just about finding ways to win.”
The Chiefs gained 7.6 yards per play on Monday night, which is the sixth-best mark of any NFL team this season. It was also their most balanced attack thus far, by a wide margin. The team rushed for 158 yards total.
The Jaguars came in as a top-five team defending the run, and the Chiefs have had their share of running woes, but Hunt averaged 7 yards per carry, topping out at 49 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries. Isiah Pacheco took seven carries for 36 yards, averaging 5.1 yards per carry.
Wide receiver Tyquan Thornton once again led the team in receiving after hauling in three explosive passes for a total of 90 yards.
Kelce was second on the team in receiving, catching seven of his eight targets for 61 yards and a touchdown. Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy each had 48 and 42 yards, respectively.
The Chiefs’ defense did not play quite as poorly as the final score indicates. Of course, Mahomes’s pick-six did not help, but five of the Jaguars’ nine offensive drives ended in a punt, turnover or no time left on the clock before halftime.
When the Jaguars were driving, it was either costly penalties or Lawrence’s legs that were extending them. Lawrence finished with 10 carries, 54 yards and two rushing touchdowns.
Lawrence was hit eight times and sacked three times, but he seemed to narrowly escape on key downs when Jacksonville needed it most.
“I think the game plan was—Spags [Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnulo] dialed up a really, really great game plan,” Jones told reporters. “I think us as a defensive line, other than finishing plays, we’ve got to be a little more disciplined on our rush lanes. We let Trevor Lawrence get out multiple times today, especially in the red zone. I think the second touchdown, he ran it in himself. The last touchdown of the game, he ran it in himself. That’s on the D-line.”
He threw for 221 yards, one touchdown and one interception through the air, and he did hit a couple of explosive plays, which cost the Chiefs.
Aside from Thomas Jr.’s late-game catch, rookie two-way phenom Travis Hunter also hauled in a 44-yarder on a scoring possession early in the second half. The duo finished with 80 and 64 yards.
Travis Etienne, one of the league’s premier running backs, was limited to 49 yards on 12 carries.
Nick Bolton led the team in tackles with 12, forced a fumble and notched a tackle for loss. Defensive end Charles Omenihu also registered a sack and a team-high two tackles for a loss.
Mahomes spoke after the game about the frustrations of falling to 2-3 on the season and what is holding them back from stringing consistency together.
“I feel like we have the guys and we’ve executed at certain points in the game and looked really good and then we kind of crush ourselves with penalties and mistakes and interceptions and fumbles or whatever that is,” Mahomes told reporters. “It’s just we’ve kind of done that to ourselves all year long. It’s been one guy here or there, and in this league, it’s so close that those change games. We got to do better. We’ve lost too many games already. We got to find a way to be better as a team and come together and play better throughout the rest of the season.”
UP NEXT
The Chiefs host another one-loss team with the Detroit Lions coming to town for the first time since defeating Kansas City to open the 2023 NFL season. Kickoff for the Week 6 matchup will be at 7:20 p.m. CT on Sunday Night Football.
