The defining play of Monday night’s thriller between Jacksonville and Kansas City has become a persistent topic in the Chiefs’ media sessions this week.
Chris Jones would like to move on.
“We’ve just got to finish,” the Chiefs defensive tackle said Wednesday, via The Associated Press. “We’ve got to finish. Multiple guys there that we’ve just got to finish that play. It was a fluke play for him to be able to break that many tackles. Yeah, I put it on us as a defense. We’ve got to finish.”
Trevor Lawrence‘s haphazard, game-winning touchdown run required the quarterback to fall (after getting stepped on by a teammate), get back up and take off around the left end, breaking a tackle as he escaped before diving across the goal line for the score. Throughout the play, Jones stood and watched, almost as if he thought there wasn’t even the slightest chance Lawrence would produce a touchdown out of the chaos.
“I thought multiple times we had him,” Jones said after the 31-28 loss to Jacksonville.
Jones’ assumption that Lawrence was going to be tackled was understandable. The play seemed to be doomed from the moment a guard stepped on Lawrence’s foot, sending him stumbling to the turf.
But as head coach Andy Reid said Wednesday, that’s no excuse for stopping entirely.
“You can’t think that the guy is down. You can’t think that,” Reid said. “You have to play the play. He knows. He’s been around this a long time. That’s really what it came down to.”