‘We missed our shot.’ What the Jaguars said about the Chiefs after Sunday’s game
When the 2023 NFL schedule was released in May, Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence took note of one game in particular.
It was a Week 2 meeting with the Super Bowl champion Chiefs, who beat the Jaguars in January’s AFC Divisional postseason game.
To Jacksonville’s chagrin, it was not able to beat the Chiefs, who won 17-9 at EverBank Stadium on Sunday despite being on Lawrence’s radar for months.
“This is a team that beat us in the playoffs last year,” Lawrence told reporters after the game. “And you kind of had that fresh in your mind all offseason. And the schedule comes out, you got Week 2 and Kansas City. We obviously took care of the business in Week 1 and then we got a shot here ... and then lay an egg offensively. It’s pretty frustrating. Yeah, pretty frustrating, especially, like I said, when you feel like you let your defense down when they played so well.
“Got so many turnovers, played — were flying around. I mean, it was fun to watch those guys. But, yeah, it’s definitely really, really frustrating when you leave that much out there, especially being in the red zone, like I said, four times and no points. And you just think back to all those plays. If you score on one of those possessions, the game is completely different. If we score on that one that we got on the 1-yard line, we score on that possession, get the two-point conversion, it’s a tied game. So there’s a lot of different things. But it’s definitely really frustrating.”
Jaguars tight end Evan Engram said losing twice to the Chiefs last season (KC also won a regular-season matchup) wasn’t on his mind Sunday.
“The other two were last year and last year is over.,” Engram said. “We had the opportunity to beat them this year and put ourselves in a good spot against one of the best teams in the league. We missed our shot.
“We are definitely going to move on from this. We are going to look at the tape and move on. Just like we saw them last year at the end, there are going to get better too as a team and we will see them again.”
Name-calling?
Jaguars safety Andre Cisco indicated there was some name-calling in Sunday’s game after he was asked if there was animosity between Jacksonville and the Chiefs.
“Yeah, I mean, we’ve got dogs on defense, so a lot of guys are not going for that, if you’re calling the guys names, or whatever the case may be,” Cisco told reporters. “A little bit of that was going on, so guys just have to step up to the plate and just be like, ‘We’re not backing down, respectfully.’
“Obviously, we do it with class and be careful with how we approach it, and don’t get penalties, whatever the case may be. But we’re not backing down for any fight.”
Jacksonville linebacker Foyesade Oluokun took pride in keeping the Chiefs to 17 points.
“Oh they were frustrated,” he told reporters. “It was good, but they were able to point up at the scoreboard and say check the scoreboard, so that hurts. It’s plays here and there, you got to outlast that team because it’s going to be a fourth-quarter bout and you’ve got to be able to come up with the win in the end, no matter how it looks.”
This story was originally published September 18, 2023 at 9:45 AM.
