‘We had to go win it’: Jaguars rally to beat Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes on ‘Monday Night Football’

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – These aren’t the same old Jaguars. Not anymore.

Jacksonville ended an eight-game losing streak to Kansas City with an electric 31-28 win over the Chiefs at a rocking EverBank Stadium on “Monday Night Football.”

Trevor Lawrence scored the wildest rushing touchdown of his career, a 1-yarder with 23 seconds to play where he got up off the ground after being tripped by a teammate, maneuvered around Chiefs and Jaguars players, and dove into the end zone for the go-ahead points.

That still left Patrick Mahomes with 16 seconds to do something, but the Jaguars managed to snuff out any sort of Mahomes magic and served notice to the rest of the AFC that these aren’t the same old Jaguars.

“They’ve been a good team for a long time. They’re hard to beat. I mean, they really are. They’re really good situationally. Don’t beat themselves. You know, at the end of the game, they’re always in it,” Lawrence said of the Chiefs. “They always seem to make the plays. And even today, you know, they went down and got some points there and and we had to go win it. So, it was cool for us to go take it and have to go win it at the end, put together a good drive.”

Jacksonville (4-1) had lost all four games it faced Mahomes, including in the AFC divisional playoffs in 2022. It ended a three-game losing skid on Monday night dating back to Jacksonville’s last win in the premier time slot on Oct. 24, 2011 against the Ravens.

“It wasn’t perfect by any means, but the resiliency is really what I think this team has and has continued to show,” said head coach Liam Coen." There was really no flinch or blink when you’re down 14-0."

Wild final minutes

Mahomes was elite when he needed to be, especially on the ground. So often against Jacksonville’s rush, Mahomes managed to escape and turn nothing into something.

He was nearly sacked on a second-down play on Kansas City’s go-ahead drive, but Dawuane Smoot couldn’t drag him down. Mahomes got a hand in the ground, kept his balance and turned it into a 5-yard gain.

Six plays later, Kareem Hunt scored a 2-yard rushing touchdown for Kansas City to take a 28-24 lead. Mahomes led all players with 60 yards rushing.

That set the table for Lawrence to try and engineer a comeback, and he did just that. Lawrence had his best throw of the night on a third and 7, a sideline strike right to Brian Thomas Jr. over the head of Conner, a Trinity Christian Academy graduate, for a 33-yard gain to the Kansas City 24. Lawrence hit Dyami Brown after that for a play that went down to the Chiefs 11.

After a flag on Conner in the end zone, Jacksonville got the ball at the 1 with 30 seconds left and no timeouts. Lawrence took the snap, lost his footing after an offensive lineman stepped on his foot, picked himself up off the ground and somehow found himself with an angle to the end zone. Lawrence dove in and put Jacksonville in front for good.

Now, it’s a short week before the Jaguars host the Seahawks on Sunday before heading to London in Week 7 to face the Rams.

Lawrence’s big finish

Lawrence had been missing a signature win on Sunday or Monday night. In Jacksonville’s last Monday night game in town, Lawrence left the game late injured, then watched as Jake Browning led the Bengals to a 34-31 comeback win in 2023. And, of course, there was the 47-10 blowout at Buffalo last year on Monday night.

But the script played out perfectly for Lawrence to author a spectacular finish — on his 26th birthday, no less — that included topping Mahomes.

Lawrence wasn’t perfect by any means, but he was money when it mattered. His third-down strike to Thomas came after Lawrence took a big sack. It was an elite throw by Lawrence and the catch by Thomas that fans were accustomed to seeing him make last year. And the poise on Lawrence’s winning score was something else.

Right guard Patrick Mekari tripped Lawrence after the snap, and he landed back at the 6-yard line. He tried to quickly get up only to fall down again. Left guard Ezra Cleveland came over to help tackle Walker Little finish off his blocker, and the extra chip gave Lawrence a sliver of room once he got back to his feet around the 7-yard line. Chiefs defensive lineman Jerry Tillery made a diving attempt to tackle Lawrence, but came up short.

“I’m just panicked, honestly, because I was trying to get up to get the ball out of my hands ... I mean, we didn’t have any time outs, so just try. I was really gonna just stand up and, like, launch it out the back of the end zone,” Lawrence said.

“But then I had a little bit of a lane, so I took it and, you know, scored from there.”

Had Lawrence been sacked, the Jaguars would have had to rush to the line to avoid the clock running out on them. He finished 18 of 25 passing for 221 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Lawrence was very good on the ground, too, leading Jacksonville in rushing (53 yards on nine carries) and two touchdowns.

When asked what he was thinking when he saw Lawrence get stepped on and fall down, Coen laughed.

“Throw it away,” he said. “When he got stepped on coming out of it, you’re like, ”oh my gosh, throw it away so we can have another down.’ Man, what an individual effort,“ Coen said. ”Tough moment, I can only imagine where he was at in that moment on the ground. But to get up, break what three tackles or whatever it was, two tackles, and shed some dude off and go running in the end zone. That’s an unbelievable individual effort."

Two big mistakes

Jacksonville had a shot to even things up at 7-all early in the second quarter, but couldn’t get the ball across the goal line. Lawrence tried to sneak it in from the 1, but didn’t break the plane and wound up fumbling the ball.

Kansas City responded by torching Jacksonville’s defense on a 97-yard touchdown drive that took just five plays. Mahomes scored on a 9-yard run for a 14-0 lead.

Another mistake led the Chiefs to knot things up in the fourth quarter. Parker Washington collided with a Chiefs defender and was knocked off his route. Replay showed that it was likely a missed pass interference call.

Lawrence’s pass — to where Washington should have been — was intercepted by Trent McDuffie at the Jacksonville 19. Two plays later, Kareem Hunt scored on a 5-yard run to tie things at 21-all.

Jacksonville’s defense played without star edge Travon Walker, who was held out with a wrist injury. Walker had practiced this week wearing a club cast on his hand, but didn’t play against the Chiefs.

Lloyd’s unreal start continues

Linebacker Devin Lloyd has had the best start of his four-year career and continued that in prime time. Mahomes had the Chiefs knocking on the door of coming away with points late in the third quarter.

Facing a second-and-goal from the 3, Mahomes tried to hit JuJu Smith-Schuster over the middle, but Lloyd timed the play perfectly. He stepped in front of the pass, snatched it going to his left, and went 99 yards the other way. It was the longest defensive touchdown in franchise history, broke open a 14-all game, and sent EverBank Stadium into a frenzy.

For Lloyd, it was his fourth interception this season, a total that is now tied for 10th for the most in a single year in franchise history.

Big play from Hunter again

Rookie Travis Hunter had his second highlight reel catch in as many weeks, going way up high between two defenders to snag a Lawrence pass early in the third quarter.

Lawrence was flushed from the pocket and looked like he was going to take off and run, but floated a pass to Hunter. He went top shelf to grab it and held on as he was driven into the ground. The play went for a career-high 44 yards and set up Jacksonville’s game-tying run by Lawrence.

Hunter had 64 yards receiving on three catches. Thomas had 80 yards receiving on four catches as he continues to regain confidence after early season struggles.