JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Kansas City Chiefs defensive back Chamarri Conner stood near an exit door of the locker room in a gray zip-up hoodie late Monday night, head tilted backward in disappointment.
The Chiefs had just lost 31-28 on the road against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and now, Conner was replaying one of the game’s most significant moments in his mind.
Third-and-13 with 38 seconds left. Jaguars in the red zone down four points. The Chiefs defense looking for a potential game-ending stop.
“That was so big,” Conner said. “I thought we made a play, so I was excited.”
The Chiefs were sending pressure, so Conner was assigned to Jaguars receiver Brian Thomas Jr. in man coverage. Conner said he immediately diagnosed a corner route coming from Thomas, so he tried to undercut him to make a play on the ball.
When the pass arrived, Conner made contact with Thomas across his arm in the end zone. The deflection sent the ball skyward with Chiefs safety Bryan Cook cradling it for what seemed like a game-ending interception.
Conner sure thought so. He popped up, sprinted toward the opposite end zone and let out an animated fist pump in celebration.
That was before he turned around and saw the penalty marker on him for defensive pass interference. His emotions flipped as he grabbed his face mask in frustration.
“I didn’t see the flag till late,” Conner said. “So yeah, that was a tough play for sure.”
Conner says he tried to turn his head late to make a play on the ball. When asked if he thought it should’ve been a penalty, he said, “I’m not sure.”
The reality hit quickly after that, though — and especially when Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence followed with a game-winning 1-yard touchdown run.
“It’s a tough loss,” Conner said. “We just didn’t make the plays when we needed to make the plays and didn’t finish how we were supposed to finish.”
Chiefs defensive back Chamarri Conner is called for pass interference on Jaguars wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. (Corey Perrine / Florida Times-Union / Imagn Images)
And this certainly seems un-Chiefs-like, doesn’t it?
Kansas City is suddenly 2-3, while also losing in the type of game in which it was literally unbeatable a season ago.
The Chiefs — abruptly and strangely — have lost their ability to win one-score games after going 12-0 in those contests during the 2024 season.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how you play if you’re not finding ways to win football games and making winning plays,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “So we’ve got to be better at that.”
Monday’s woes were uncharacteristic, especially for an Andy Reid-coached Chiefs team.
One issue was discipline. The Chiefs had 13 penalties for 109 yards, which marked their highest markoff total since the 2019 season.
“It just felt like there were flags all over the field,” Chiefs linebacker Drue Tranquill said.
K.C. also had to try to overcome one of the biggest momentum shifts in an NFL game this season.
While driving inside the 5-yard line to take the lead in the third quarter, Mahomes threw a pick-six interception to Jaguars linebacker Devin Lloyd, who faked a blitz before falling back into coverage. That single snap, according to NFL’s Next Gen Stats, shifted the Jaguars’ odds of winning from 28 percent to 70 percent.
“Honestly,” Mahomes said, “they just got me with the coverage they played.”
That was enough to erase all the other positives from a game the Chiefs should’ve won — and probably comfortably.
K.C. outgained Jacksonville by 157 yards (476-319). Since Reid took over in 2013, his Chiefs teams had gone 23-1 before Monday in games when they had outgained the opponent by more than 150 yards.
Now, make that 23-2.
“You can out-stat them to death, but it doesn’t matter. It’s the score that matters,” Reid said. “And we’ve got to take care of business there.”
It all led to a numb Chiefs locker room afterward, with a white Turtlebox speaker sitting in the middle of the room, powered on but with no happy songs playing.
“I feel like we have the guys and have executed at certain points in the game and look really good, then we crush ourselves with penalties and mistakes and interceptions and fumbles or whatever that is,” Mahomes said. “We’ve kind of done that to ourselves all year long.”
The Chiefs don’t have time to sulk. On a short week, they’ll host the Detroit Lions, which boast the NFL’s best offense, on “Sunday Night Football.” Through five weeks, the Lions also appear to be the NFC’s best team.
It won’t take much squinting for the Chiefs to see some positives. For example, the offense gained 7.6 yards per play — the sixth-best mark for any NFL team this season.
K.C.’s offensive line didn’t surrender a sack. Mahomes passed for 318 yards, and the Chiefs’ run game showed some life with Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt.
Meanwhile, rookie Brashard Smith added some spark to the team’s passing game. And suspended Rashee Rice will return as the team’s top receiver starting in Week 7.
Even Mahomes acknowledged afterward that, in a loss, the offense “did a lot of great things.”
All of that is no consolation, though, for a team that has put itself behind in the standings for both the division and future playoff seeding.
“We’ve got to be better. We’ve lost too many games already,” Mahomes said. “So we’ve got to find a way to be better as a team and come together and play better throughout the rest of the season.”
It’ll start with the Chiefs correcting their mistakes.
According to Tranquill, the team “got undisciplined,” especially late in the game.
And defensive tackle Chris Jones? He said the team suffered from “sloppy play.”
Back in the locker room, Conner said he believes the team needs to get back to doing what it did so often last season.
And that is getting back to its clutch identity with the game on the line.
“Tonight, we didn’t finish how we needed to finish,” Conner said. “That’s pretty much it.”