After the Jaguars had come off an impressive week one victory, they were looking to build on that momentum and start their season 2-0.
Jacksonville hosted the reigning and defending Super Bowl champs in the Kansas City Chiefs for their home opener, but lost the game 17-9.
Kansas City had two key players, Travis Kelce and Chris Jones, return to the field and make noticeable contributions. Travis Kelce, who was coming off a hyper-extended knee injury, recorded four receptions for 26 yards and a touchdown. Chris Jones was disruptive all afternoon as he had one tackle for a loss, one pass defended, and 1.5 sacks.
Offensively for the Chiefs, it was a bounce-back game for Patrick Mahomes and the offense as they played much better as a group overall. Mahomes completed 29 of 41 passes for 305 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. Isaiah Pacheco had 12 rushes for 70 yards, including a game-high 31-yard run. Kadarius Toney, who struggled mightily in week one with four drops, bounced back in week two with five receptions for 35 yards. Sky Moore got involved offensively after a zero-catch performance in week one. Moore had three catches for 70 yards and a game-high 54-yard catch in the fourth quarter that closed the game out.
Defensively for the Chiefs, you couldn’t have asked for a better performance from that group collectively. They held Jacksonville to 271 yards of total offense, they had four sacks, and the Jaguars didn’t get in the endzone one. The Chiefs were able to get the Jaguars offense off the field as they only converted 3-12 on third downs, and they went 0-2 on fourth down attempts.
The Jaguars offense was putrid and pretty horrendous all afternoon for the most part. The two lone bright spots on offense came with Christian Kirk and Evan Engram. Kirk had a great performance with 11 receptions for 110 yards, and Engram had six receptions for 57 yards. Otherwise, Jacksonville struggled to move the ball consistently, the run game was essentially non-existent, and the offense went 0-7 in the red zone.
Trevor Lawrence completed only 22 of his 41 pass attempts. He had zero touchdowns and was sacked four times. Running back Travis Etienne Jr. only got 12 carries out of the backfield for 40 yards, and the offensive line did a porous job of blocking all afternoon.
Jacksonville’s defense played a phenomenal game and did everything they could to give this offense any chance of winning this game. They limited Mahomes’ offense to 17 points, they created three turnovers, and the Chiefs were penalized 12 times for 94 yards. Despite a great game for the defense as a collective unit, this offense couldn’t repair the favor and will have to find a way to be better moving forward.
Jacksonville had an opportunity to not just start 2-0, but they could’ve also given themselves a 2.5-game lead over the Chiefs in the AFC playoff race. The Jaguars will drop to 1-1 on the season, and take on the Houston Texans and CJ Stroud at home in week three.