There’s no doubt that Chris Jones is one of the best defenders in the NFL. What’s questionable was his effort on the play that ultimately gave the Jacksonville Jaguars the win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football.
On the Kansas City one-yard line, Trevor Lawrence slipped, got up, and reached the end zone to put the Jags on top 31-28. During the play, you can see Jones get knocked out by guard Ezra Cleveland. But instead of getting back on his feet and pursuing No. 16, he gave up.
— NFL (@NFL) October 7, 2025
Rightly, his effort or lack thereof came under scrutiny, and things got so bad that Jones had to delete his Twitter account.
Chris Jones isn’t ready to credit the Jaguars for their win on Monday Night
Following the win over the Chiefs, most analysts are giving the Jaguars their flowers. Not Chris Jones, though. He believes Jacksonville won on a fluke play, noting that other Chiefs players had an opportunity to stop the play but didn’t. Here’s what he had to say in the aftermath.
“I thought multiple times, we had him. We’ve just got to finish. We’ve got to finish,” Jones said, via Jesse Newell of The Athletic. “We had multiple guys there, we’ve 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. We’ve got to bring him down on that.”
As you can see, there’s a notable dearth of accountability. Instead of saying something along the lines of, “I didn’t make a play,” or “Hat tip to Trevor Lawrence and the Jags for coming through,” he pointed fingers at his teammates and called the play an aberration.
Related: 3 winners and 1 loser from the decisive Jags win vs. the Chiefs
The Jaguars were the better team (even if Chirs Jones won’t admit it)
It’s easy to see why Chris Jones is deflecting. He hasn’t been particularly great this year and didn’t make enough plays on Monday Night Football. Sure, he did have five total pressures, but the Jaguars offensive line did its part and kept Trevor Lawrence upright for the most part.
Although Jacksonville gave up 13 total pressures against the Chiefs, they didn’t surrender a single sack. That’s even more surprising when you take into account that center Robert Hainsey had to leave the game, and seventh-round pick Jonah Monheim filled in for him.
Surprisingly, there are still several talking heads that cannot fathom the idea that the Jaguars were the better team, even though the refs screwed them (Colin Cowherd is one of them). However, they outplayed the Chiefs in all three phases of the game, which is why they’re 4-1, while Kansas City finds itself with a losing record.
No wonder Chris Jones isn’t just ready to take the L.
