In a wild, back-and-forth affair on “Monday Night Football,” the Jacksonville Jaguars staged a double-digit comeback against the Kansas City Chiefs, prevailing 31-28 over the defending AFC champions. The Jaguars trailed 14-0 at one point in the game, and also trailed 28-24 with less than two minutes remaining before staging a last-minute touchdown drive to score the eventual game-winning touchdown. 

Trevor Lawrence engineered that go-ahead drive, making a huge throw up the right sideline to Brian Thomas Jr. to convert a third-and-long and then rushing the ball into the end zone from 1 yard out. On that touchdown, which was Lawrence’s second rushing score of the game, Lawrence tripped coming out of the snap exchange and was nearly sacked for a five-yard loss. Instead, he got to his feet and scampered around the edge and into the end zone.

Lawrence had quite an eventful night, rushing for two scores and throwing a third to overcome two fairly significant mistakes. With the Jaguars trailing 7-0 early in the second quarter, Lawrence attempted to jump over the line for a quarterback sneak from the 1-yard line, but the ball was knocked out of his hands for a fumble by Nick Bolton before he could cross the plane. The Chiefs then drove 97 yards to take a two-score lead.

That’s when the Jaguars started their comeback. They embarked on a 13-play, 70-yard drive that ended with Lawrence finding Parker Washington in the front of the end zone for a score, and they eventually entered halftime trailing by only seven points. On their first drive after the break, the Jags again marched right down the field, going 87 yards on seven plays, ending with Lawrence scrambling up the middle for a 10-yard touchdown jaunt.

With the game tied late in the third quarter, the Chiefs were driving with a chance to take the lead. That’s when the defense, which has been a turnover-forcing machine all season, stepped up: Devin Lloyd picked off Patrick Mahomes just shy of the goal line and took the interception 99 yards to the house to give Jacksonville its first lead of the game.

After a Chiefs punt, though, Lawrence made his second mistake of the night when he threw a pick deep in his own territory. The Chiefs quickly capitalized by scoring a touchdown on just two plays, and suddenly the game was tied once again. 

A LeQuint Allen kickoff return for 38 yards set the Jags up with excellent field position for their next drive, which only needed to travel 25 yards to set up a Cam Little field goal from 52 yards out. The Chiefs then matriculated the ball down the field with a 12-play, 86-yard drive that ended with a Kareem Hunt touchdown to take the lead, but all that did was set the stage for Lawrence’s late-game heroics.

With the win, the Jaguars improved to 4-1 on the young season, keeping pace with the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC South. Meanwhile, the Chiefs dropped back down to 2-3 and moved further back in the AFC West race.

Running quarterbacks

Both Lawrence and Mahomes did a fantastic job as rushers in this game. 

Lawrence finished the game with 10 carries for 54 yards and two touchdowns, while Mahomes ran six times for 60 yards and a score of his own. Lawrence’s 10 rushing attempts were tied for the most of his career. Mahomes led the Chiefs in rushing once again. Lawrence set a new career high for rushing first downs and ran for two scores for the fourth time in his career.

Honestly, I have no idea how Lawrence’s game-winning score even turned into a touchdown. He tripped on the feet of his own offensive lineman, fell down at the 5-yard line, tried to get up, fell again, then scampered around the edge for the touchdown. It was incredible. Somehow, this turned into a touchdown:

ESPN
Turnover machine

The Jaguars came into this game having forced an incredible 13 turnovers in four games. That’s practically unheard of. Anthony Campanile’s unit “only” forced one turnover on Monday night, but it was an absolutely massive one. 

Devin Lloyd made his fourth interception of the year, stepping into the path of a Mahomes pass intended for JuJu Smith-Schuster at the goal line and then taking it 99 yards the other way for a touchdown that gave the Jaguars a lead. 

Chiefs’ mistakes

Kansas City outgained Jacksonville by more than 150 yards in this game. The Chiefs averaged 7.6 yards per play to Jacksonville’s 5.9 per play. They went 5 of 9 on third down. They averaged 7.2 yards per rush. They scored touchdowns on four of their five red zone possessions. And yet, they came away with their third loss of the season.

They simply made too many mistakes. The Mahomes interception at the goal line was obviously crucial. And he just threw it to the wrong man. If you watch the replay above, you can see him try to fit the ball in Smith-Schuster over the middle when Travis Kelce was wide just to the right of him for what would have been a walk-in touchdown.

But the Chiefs also took 13 — THIRTEEN — penalties in this game. That included four penalties on special teams, including one on the final kickoff return that robbed the Chiefs of valuable field position that could have been used to set up a potential game-tying field goal attempt to send the game into overtime. That also included a pass interference in the end zone that set up Lawrence’s game-winning touchdown run.

You simply can’t make that many mistakes and expect to win the game — even when your offense moves the ball as well as Kansas City’s did in this one. Those types of mistakes are how you lose another one-score game — how you go from 11-0 in those games one year, to 0-3 the next year.