One of the worst things that can be said about a professional football player is that he was loafing on the field.
During the game-deciding play on Monday night, which started with Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence falling down, continued with him falling again, and ended with an improbable touchdown run, it sure looks like one key defensive player for the Chiefs was giving minimal effort. If that much.
Watch defensive tackle Chris Jones. He sees Lawrence fall. He watches Lawrence get up. He observes Lawrence scramble to the left.
Jones pulls up when it appears that Lawrence was being tackled. And then, after Lawrence broke free, Jones took a half step before pulling the plug on his pursuit.
After the game, Jones addressed the play without acknowledging the apparent lack of effort.
“I thought multiple times we had him,” Jones told reporters. “We just got to finish. We’ve got to finish. We got multiple guys there that we just got to finish that play. It was a fluke play for him to be able to break that many tackles. But yeah, I put it on us as a defense. We’ve got to finish. You know, we’ve got to bring him down on that.”
Jones wasn’t questioned about his own failure to finish. He likely will be, at some point this week.
Even if Jones thought he couldn’t get to Lawrence before he scored, someone could have hit Lawrence and knocked the ball out. Jones could have been in position to recover the fumble. Or maybe Lawrence would have cut back again, toward the spot where Jones would have been, if he had given chase.
Regardless, it’s a tough look for Jones. And it will be interesting to hear how he and the Chiefs explain it.
