Chris Jones takes blame for loss, has no comment on exchange with Drue Tranquill
Despite a sluggish offensive start, leaky coverage in the secondary and a failure to consistently pressure Justin Herbert, the Chiefs had a chance to steal the game from the Chargers in Brazil on Friday night.
Following Drue Tranquill’s second sack of the game, Los Angeles — winning 27-21 —faced third-and-14 at its own 34-yard line. The Chiefs were out of timeouts, but ahead of the two-minute warning, a stop would give Patrick Mahomes a chance to run KC’s two-minute offense.
Herbert took the snap out of the shotgun. Initially lined up outside, Chiefs defensive end Chris Jones quickly cut inside to beat the right tackle. But that overpursuit gave Herbert the opening he needed to cut back and run 19 yards to the Chargers’ opening-game victory.
Jones called it a “tough day.”
“(I) kind of took an inside move,” said Jones. “I put the blame on me. Probably could have contained better. But super grateful for the opportunity to play in Brazil and play in an international (game). You know, it’s a lot of fun. The atmosphere was amazing. I just wish we could have closed the game with a W.”
Shortly after the play, the YouTube broadcast showed Tranquill visibly upset with Jones. From the intense exchange and Jones’ words, it could be inferred that it was Jones’ responsibility to keep Herbert at bay rather than cutting inside to wrap him up.
“Well, the tackle jumped me,” Jones said. “Just should have stayed outside. I blame me. I could have pass rushed better. I could have had a better pass rush, could have contained better. Yeah, I blame myself.”
Jones had no comment when asked about his exchange with Tranquill, instead focusing on the bigger picture.
“You’re looking at the first game of the season, and you can’t judge the team’s success by one game or even one particular play,” he said. “I think we have 16 more games, we have 16 more opportunities to get better. We can watch, make some corrections, fix some errors. “I think it was a surplus that inflicted errors — offsides, roughing the passers. Multiple times, we shot ourselves in the foot, some self-inflicted wounds that we can fix and detail that up, and I think we can improve in that aspect.”
