Though he may not have been able to do anything about it, Chris Jones just watched Trevor Lawrence run into the end zone late Monday night at EverBank Stadium.
The Jacksonville quarterback, after tripping in the backfield, somehow managed to regain his composure and scramble into the end zone in the final minute to lift the Jaguars to a wild 31-28 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. That gave the Jaguars their third straight win and pushed them to 4-1 on the year.
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On that final touchdown, Jones appeared to quit. The defensive tackle was seen walking very slowly and watching the play from near the goal line while making any effort to get to Lawrence in time — which it appears like he could have at least come close to doing.
While it’s unclear if Jones could have been able to stop Lawrence, who deserves credit for making a great play after falling down twice in the backfield, watching the play unfold in the middle of the action isn’t a great look.
“I thought multiple times we had him. We’ve just gotta finish,” Jones said of the final play after the game. “We’ve gotta finish. We had multiple guys there that, we just gotta finish that play.
“It was a fluke play for him to be able to break that many tackles. I put it on us as a defense, we’ve gotta finish. We’ve gotta bring him down on that.”
Jones had one tackle in the loss for Kansas City, which now sits at 2-3 on the season. The 31-year-old is in his 10th season with the Kansas City Chiefs, who selected him in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft out of Mississippi State.
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To be clear, the loss isn’t on Jones alone. The Chiefs gave up 21 straight points in the loss, and Patrick Mahomes threw an interception that Devin Lloyd ran back 99 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter. The Chiefs also let Lawrence march the Jaguars down the field in less than 90 seconds at the end of the game to set up his game-winning touchdown. Clearly, the Chiefs’ defensive issues go beyond Jones.
But being caught walking in the middle of the action at such a crucial moment isn’t a good look by any means.