Jaguars linebacker Devin Lloyd was the AFC defensive player of the week in Week 4 and he’s going to be a top candidate to take the prize again in Week 5.
The Chiefs appeared to be on their way to a touchdown that would break a 14-14 tie in the third quarter when they snapped the ball on a second down from the Jacksonville 3-yard line and wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster broke open long enough for Patrick Mahomes to fire a pass to him. Mahomes didn’t see Lloyd dropping after a blitz feint, however, and Lloyd snagged the ball at the 1-yard line.
Lloyd then took off in the other direction, avoided a Mahomes tackle attempt and ran “a long, long way” for a touchdown that helped set the stage for the Jaguars’ 31-28 win.
“It was just a great call,” Lloyd said in his postgame press conference. “It was a zero look. I was able to pop out and we know the ball’s coming out quick, so it’s really about me getting my eyes back and getting in the right vicinity. The ball’s right there, thankfully. Picked up a couple blocks, those were big. I don’t know if I would have made it if I didn’t get those.”
The interception was Lloyd’s league-best fourth of the season. The first three helped him land AFC defensive player of the month for September, but none of the others was as memorable as the one he made on Monday night.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has a lot of experience making improbable comebacks and game-winning plays in the final seconds, but he was on the other side of things on Monday night in Jacksonville.
The Chiefs gave up an early 14-0 lead and then fell behind when Jaguars linebacker Devin Lloyd returned a Mahomes interception 99 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter. They were able to move back into the lead with 1:45 left to play, but Mahomes could only watch as the Jaguars drove down the field to set up quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s stumbling, game-winning touchdown run.
In his postgame press conference, Mahomes said the Chiefs “let a game slip away.” In addition to his interception, the team committed 13 penalties that included a couple of defensive pass interference calls that helped set up Jacksonville scores.
The result was the third one-score loss of the season for a team that’s specialized in pulling those out in recent years.
“It kinda just talks about our entire season. We have the guys and we’ve executed at certain points in games and looked really good, but we kinda crush ourselves with penalties and mistakes and interceptions and fumbles and whatever that is,” Mahomes said. “We’ve done that to ourselves all season long. It’s been one guy here or there. In this league, it’s so close that those change games. We’ve got to be better. We’ve lost too many games already. We gotta find a way to be better as a team.”
The Chiefs don’t get much chance to breathe. They’ll face the Lions on a short week and will need to be sharper for 60 minutes if they’re going to avoid a fourth loss in six games.
Jaguars rookie wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter had his biggest game on offense and continued to be a part-time player on defense in Monday night’s win over the Chiefs.
Hunter caught all three passes thrown to him, for a career-high 64 yards. That included his biggest play of the season, a 44-yard catch that helped to set up a Jaguars touchdown in the third quarter. He also had a 12-yard catch that got a first down on second-and-11, and his only catch that didn’t pick up a first down, an eight-yarder on third-and-13, set up the Jaguars for a 52-yard field goal that they might not have kicked without that catch getting them closer.
On offense, it was easily the biggest impact Hunter has made all season after entering Monday night averaging less than 30 receiving yards per game. Hunter had two first downs on Monday night; he had only picked three first downs in four games heading into Monday night.
Still, Hunter is not making the kind of impact at wide receiver that a team would expect from a No. 2 overall draft pick. The next two wide receivers taken in the 2025 NFL draft, Carolina’s Tetairoa McMillan and Tampa Bay’s Emeka Egbuka, are both averaging more catches and more yards per game than Hunter had on Monday night in his career-best game.
On defense, Hunter is playing, but not playing like the full-time starting cornerback that a No. 2 overall pick should be. Hunter played 39 percent of the Jaguars’ defensive snaps, which is exactly what he had been averaging through the first four games of the season.
Hunter is unique in that he’s the only player in the NFL who’s currently playing significant snaps on both offense and defense. Four other players have played on both offense and defense this season, but they all play a minimal role on the side of the ball that is not their specialty. Hunter plays a significant role on both the Jaguars’ offense and defense.
Overall, however, his contributions through five games do not justify the enormous price the Jaguars paid for him, which included trading the No. 5 overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft and their first-round pick in the 2026 NFL draft to move up to No. 2 and select him. The Jaguars got more from Hunter than usual on Monday night, but they’ll need more still for his impact to be worth his cost.
Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence scored the game-winning touchdown on Monday night on a play that was very much not how it was drawn up: An offensive lineman stepped on Lawrence’s foot, causing him to fall, but Lawrence got up and ran into the end zone.
Asked on ESPN after the game what he was feeling on that play, Lawrence answered, “Just panic.”
“Sheer panic,” Lawrence continued. “On the ground, we didn’t have any timeouts, I got stepped on coming up, and I was like, ‘I gotta get up.’ I was just gonna throw it out of bounds to stop the clock, but there was really no one around me so I made a play.”
Lawrence made a play, and did so with a lot of help from a Chiefs defense that didn’t pressure him when he fell. Chiefs All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones, in particular, just stood there while Lawrence got up and scored the touchdown.
It was one of the biggest plays of Lawrence’s career, and it’s why the Jaguars are now 4-1.
Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars have their defining win.
In a gutsy performance, the Jaguars quarterback led his team to a 31-28 victory over the Chiefs on his birthday. He ran 1 yard to the end zone for the winning points with 23 seconds left.
The Jaguars are 4-1 and the Chiefs 2-3.
Lawrence drove the Jaguars 60 yards in seven plays. He completed a 33-yard pass to Brian Thomas to the Kansas City 24 on third-and-7, and three plays later, on third-and-3 from the 14, Bryan Cook’s interception of Lawrence in the end zone was negated by a defensive pass interference penalty on Chamarri Conner.
On the next play, with 30 seconds remaining and the Jaguars out of timeouts, Lawrence had his foot stepped on by his right guard. He fell to the ground, but no Chiefs defender was close enough to touch him, and he got up and ran toward the end zone.
Chiefs defensive lineman Jerry Tillery missed the tackle, and Lawrence scored.
The Chiefs couldn’t get close enough for a field-goal try to tie it.
Patrick Mahomes had the Chiefs in the lead with 1:45 left. He went 5-for-5 for 51 yards on the drive and had two runs for first downs, picking up 20 yards with his feet, on the 12-play, 86-yard drive. Kareem Hunt scored his second touchdown on a 2-yard run.
The Chiefs, though, left too much time for Lawrence, who went 18-of-25 for 221 yards with a touchdown and an interception. He also had 10 rushes for 54 yards and two touchdowns.
Early in the game, Lawrence lost a fumble on fourth down on a quarterback sneak when he tried to reach the ball over the goal line. But he more than made up for it.
Thomas had four catches for 80 yards and rookie Travis Hunter three for 64.
The Chiefs outgained the Jaguars 476 to 319, with Mahomes going 29-of-41 for 318 yards with a touchdown and an interception. His touchdown throw was a 2-yarder to Travis Kelce. Mahomes also ran for a 9-yard touchdown and was his team’s leading rusher with 60 yards on six carries.
Tyquan Thornton caught three passes for 90 yards and Kelce had seven for 61.
Jaguars linebacker Devin Lloyd had a 99-yard pick-six of Mahomes to give Jacksonville its first lead at 21-14.
Chiefs defensive back Trent McDuffie picked Lawrence, though, to set up two-play, 19-yard drive, with Hunt scoring on a 5-yard run and a 21-21 tie.
Jaguars kicker Cam Little had the Jaguars back on top with 8:08 left with a 52-yard field goal.
That just set up the drama in the final two minutes.
