The Jaguars defeated the Chiefs, 31-28, on Monday night, with the go-ahead score provided by Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence in the most bizarre fashion possible. Down by four with under 30 seconds left and the ball at the Chiefs' 1-yard line, Lawrence, after having his foot accidentally stepped on by one of his offensive lineman, stumbled to the ground and appeared to be a sitting duck for the Chiefs defense. But the Jaguars QB got to his feet, broke a tackle and somehow dove for the end zone and six points.
Amidst the chaos, one player, none other than three-time All-Pro Chris Jones, drew the ire of fans and one former NFL star for his perceived lack of effort on the critical play.
Here's one more look at the play, during which Jones appears to be merely walking towards Lawrence as the Jaguars signal-caller is headed for the end zone.
LAWRENCE STUMBLES.
— NFL (@NFL) October 7, 2025
LAWRENCE SCORES.@JAGUARS LEAD!
KCvsJAX on ESPN/ABC
Stream on @NFLPlus and ESPN App pic.twitter.com/1cLzGVmHaJ
And former Broncos Super Bowl champion, five-time pro Bowl selection and one-time All-Pro Aqib Talib was not impressed.
Why is Chris Jones standing and watching on the game winning fall down TD? @AaronDonald97 would NEVER!!!
— AqibTalib21 (@AqibTalib21) October 7, 2025
Perhaps Jones, who was on the field for 83 percent of the snaps on defense, the most of any Chiefs defensive lineman, was simply tired. Maybe he was intending to let Lawrence score so that the Chiefs offense had adequate time to get down the field and kick a potential game-tying field goal? Or perhaps he simply didn't think he had an angle to make a play on Lawrence?
According to Jones himself, he thought that the Chiefs defense, which had a pair of defenders in the area, had Lawrence wrapped up.
"I thought multiple times we had him," Jones said after the game. "We’ve just gotta finish. 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."
To give Jones the benefit of the doubt, it was a weird play, and nine times out of 10, if a ball-carrier falls down like that, chances are they're getting tackled. But Kansas City failed to take down Lawrence, and now Jones's effort—or seeming lack thereof—is under the microscope, fair or not.
The loss drops the Chiefs to 2-3.
More NFL on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Former NFL All-Pro Calls Out Chiefs' Chris Jones for Effort on Trevor Lawrence TD.
