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JACKSONVILLE — It was the kind of night where Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence could fall down, trip, get up and still run in for the winning touchdown with 23 seconds left to beat the Chiefs.
The kind of night where a tipped pass could bounce off the hands of three different Chiefs defenders and fall incomplete, allowing the Jaguars to begin a long comeback. The kind of night where a goal-line throw from Patrick Mahomes turns into a 99-yard interception return by Jaguars linebacker Devin Lloyd.
And it was the kind of night where Kansas City committed 13 penalties for 109 yards — the team’s highest totals since 2019 and 2018, respectively — as the Chiefs took a 31-28 loss to the Jaguars to fall to 2-3 this season.
“We gave this game away,” said defensive tackle Chris Jones, who watched as Lawrence scored the final touchdown. “So many mistakes by us. So many things we could have done differently … I put it on us as a defense. We have to finish. We have to bring him down on that.”
The Chiefs (2-3) have now lost to three solid teams in the Chargers (3-2), Eagles (4-1) and Jaguars (4-1). But Kansas City was the kings of one-score games last season, going 12-0 in such contests on the way to a Super Bowl, and this year’s team is now 0-3 in such games, on the other end of the same narrow margin.
“Obviously, it sucks,” Mahomes said. “You let a game slip away, Credit to them. They played hard the entire game. They closed it out at the end, and it sucks whenever you get a lead like that and you’re not able to hold it the rest of the game.”
Early on, it seemed an easy night for the Chiefs, as Mahomes threw a 2-yard touchdown to tight end Travis Kelce, then ran 9 yards for a score of his own and a 14-0 lead. Early in the second quarter, the Jaguars went for it on fourth-and-goal at the 1, and Lawrence leaped and reached the ball out, only to have it poked out by linebacker Nick Bolton, inches short of a touchdown.
In the same end zone, the game slipped through the Chiefs’ hands, as a Lawrence pass bounced off his receiver, caromed high off corner Trent McDuffie, then was bobbled by Bolton and Drue Tranquill before falling to the ground, Tranquill laying face down for a moment in disbelief.
In the same end zone, after the Jaguars had tied the game at 14-14, the Chiefs were at the 3-yard line when Mahomes threw a pass that was picked off by Lloyd — his NFL-best fourth pick in five games — and returned 99 yards for a touchdown. Kansas City would rally back for a 28-24 lead on two Kareem Hunt touchdowns, so one last defensive stop would seal a tough road win.
But Harrison Butker’s kickoff went out of bounds, letting the Jaguars start at the 40. A defensive pass interference penalty in the end zone negated a Chiefs interception and set the Jaguars up at the 1. From there, Lawrence stumbled and fell in the backfield, tripped as he tried to get up, and still was able to collect himself and dive into the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown.
“It kind of talks about our whole entire season,” Mahomes said of the self-inflicted nature of Sunday’s loss. “We have the guys, and we’ve executed at certain parts of the game, looked really good, and then we crush ourselves with penalties and mistakes and interceptions or fumbles, whatever that is. We’ve kind of done that to ourselves all year long. In this league, it’s so close that those change games. We’ve got to be better. We’ve lost too many games already.”
Kansas City doesn’t have time to lick their wounds, as they must turn around and prepare for a game Sunday night against Detroit, 4-1 and the highest-scoring team in the league.
Further evidence that it just wasn’t the Chiefs’ day — Lawrence’s game-winning touchdown came in the final hour of his 26th birthday, a day after Kelce turned 36. Asked to talk to reporters at his locker after the loss, Kelce declined.
“Today isn’t the day,” he said. “They just ruined my birthday.”
Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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