Gene Frenette: Jaguars' offense 'kind of embarrassing' in humbling 17-9 home loss to Chiefs

The Jacksonville Jaguars’ offense and head coach Doug Pederson kept lamenting repeatedly about lack of execution, missed opportunities and deficiencies in the red zone.

One by one, they beat themselves up over being on the doorstep of the end zone and coming up empty, putting on a performance that quarterback Trevor Lawrence referred to as “sloppy” and “kind of embarrassing.”

No argument there. Diplomatic Trevor was being kind on that point.

Jaguars report card vs. Chiefs: Offense gets an F, other facets were OK

Still, how could a Jaguars’ defense get three takeaways, hold Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs to 17 points, yet have this supposedly explosive Lawrence-led offense reciprocate by bombing out in the home opener Sunday against the defending Super Bowl champions?

Kansas City 17, Jaguars 9.

Any Las Vegas bookmakers or those opining about the NFL world see that kind of prehistoric score coming?

For only the fourth time in Lawrence’s pro career, he failed to lead his team into the end zone. But this one was far more exasperating, albeit that 13-6 home loss last year to the Houston Texans that the Jaguars’ quarterback brought up unsolicited remains plenty dumbfounding.

What made the timing of this infuriating outcome so hard to live with is the Jaguars are no longer this team trying to figure out Pederson’s system. They’ve got weapons galore, plenty of proven receivers, running backs and tight ends who are chain-movers and have experience finding the end zone.

Besides, they had already spent the entire 2022 season and all of 2023 training camp putting most of this offensive puzzle together. This was time for a payoff, an ideal scenario with the Chiefs coming into the Florida mid-September heat at EverBank Stadium.

The Jaguars were fresh off hanging 31 points on the Indianapolis Colts in last week’s season opener, despite struggling in short-yardage situations. A sellout crowd of 69,615 (too much of it attired in red) was stoked about the home team winning a shootout against a two-time MVP quarterback on the other sideline.

And what did the black-and-teal faithful get in return for a week’s worth of hype and so much anticipated fireworks? One giant letdown.

Lawrence couldn’t ignore the numbers that defined this day: 3-of-14 combined on third and fourth down, 0-of-3 in the red zone, 271 total yards.

“Yeah, it’s just we’re better than that,” said Lawrence. “We’re a better offense than that. And I think that’s what’s disappointing, is when you know what you’re capable of. And the guys that we have, whether it’s upfront or myself, the running backs, receivers, like, we got so many weapons.

“We got to be able to put points on the board and score. And that’s just kind of embarrassing.”

Mahomes on another level

In a matchup where the NFL’s biggest star quarterback and an ascending gunslinger hooked up for the third time in the last 10 months, it was no contest.

Mahomes (29 of 41, 305 yards, 2 TDs), despite losing weapon after weapon in recent years to free agency, showed once again that when big plays need to be made in decisive moments, he remains significantly ahead of Lawrence and any NFL quarterback in that department.

When you compare the artillery of skill players in Mahomes’ surrounding cast this season, it falls short of what Lawrence has available to him, though the Chiefs getting back All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce from a knee injury cannot be overstated.

But even with Kelce not 100 percent, and the Jaguars’ defense playing lights-out most of the afternoon, Mahomes made just enough big plays to atone for that annoying 21-20 loss to the Detroit Lions when receiver Kadarius Toney came down with a bad case of the drop-sies.

While Lawrence was getting shut out of the end zone — helped by a porous offensive line that allowed four sacks and couldn’t ignite a legitimate running game — Mahomes didn’t let some early frustration like throwing a pass to KC left tackle Donovan Smith keep him from delivering in key moments.

When a Chris Jones fourth-down sack of Lawrence gave the Chiefs the ball at midfield, he managed to overcome a first-down sack by K’Lavon Chaisson (only Jaguars’ sack in last three meetings) and an illegal formation penalty by tackle Jawaan Taylor.

Just like that, Mahomes, on his 28th birthday, connected on six straight passes for 62 yards, capped by a 9-yard TD strike to Skyy Moore for a 7-3 lead KC never relinquished. On the Chiefs’ scoring drive to open the second half, Mahomes got into the red zone with a 34-yard pass to Justin Watson, then hit paydirt by moving up in the pocket and finding a wide open Kelce on another 9-yard TD to make it 14-6.

Jaguars’ linebacker Foye Oluokun played his usual standout game with 10 tackles and a fumble recovery, but he couldn’t stop Mahomes from sealing the outcome on a 54-yard connection to Moore at the two-minute warning.

As Oluokun came up to pressure the Chiefs’ quarterback on third-and-6, Mahomes stopped running toward the sideline, then reset his feet to buy an extra second and got the ball downfield to the open Moore.

“That’s what he does, he is good at that, that’s what he puts on tape week in and week out,” Oluokun said. “At the end of the day, when put in those positions, you have to make those plays in order to beat that team and I did not make that play and now we are sitting here.”

Jaguars must find answers

It’s only Week 2 of a long NFL season, but the Jaguars were right to be “ticked off,” as Pederson described their emotions in the postgame locker room.

This was a prime opportunity to avenge that 27-20, season-ending AFC Divisional playoff loss, along with another regular-season setback, to Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium.

There was no better time for the Jaguars to validate this perceived status as a Super Bowl-contending team than to take down the champs in their own house. No better time for Trevor to show the king of the QB hill that he’s coming and fast closing the gap.

None of that happened. Oh, sure, the Jaguars threatened to make it happen, recovering two fumbles and safety Andre Cisco intercepting a deep ball that Mahomes forced into double coverage.

But the offense outside of receiver Christian Kirk (11 catches, 110 yards) kept sputtering whenever it got anywhere near the end zone. Lawrence connected four times with receivers at the back of the end zone, but Zay Jones and Calvin Ridley couldn’t keep both feet inbounds, adding to the postgame vexation.

“Again, you play good teams, you can’t beat yourself,” Pederson said. “And that’s what we did today. We beat ourselves. You know, yes, the defense; yes, special teams played well. But it all takes all three phases, right?”

Indeed, it does. But the Jaguars couldn’t keep terrorizing pass-rusher Jones, who was playing on a limited pitch count, off Lawrence. Especially when Jones went up against rookie right tackle Anton Harrison.

Everything the Jaguars tried to hit paydirt kept coming up short. A lateral to Kirk and a pass back across the field to Travis Etienne got no yardage. A pressured Lawrence tried a backwards pass to Jamal Agnew (initially ruled incomplete) that resulted in a KC fumble recovery.

“Almost every play, every series, there’s something we can all do better,” said Lawrence. “Really sloppy.”

After getting first downs in the red zone on three different occasions, the Jaguars ran 10 plays that netted all of 5 yards. That included a first-and-goal at the 1 when Lawrence got stuffed for a three-yard loss on an option keeper.

“It’s execution,” said Pederson. “We’ve got to do better. We’ve got to execute. We’ve got too many guys on offense, veteran players that, you know, just we all need to do better, starting with me.”

If it’s any consolation, the Jaguars can feel encouraged that a defense many figured would be inferior to a potentially explosive offense has shined in the first two weeks.

But the inescapable emotion is the opportunity the Jaguars wasted, particularly to keep the Chiefs in their rear-view mirror for a potential No. 1 AFC playoff seed in 16 more weeks. That may sound presumptuous at this stage of the game, but they finally had KC on their turf and couldn’t take down the Super Bowl champs.

The fact Trevor Lawrence and the offense laid an egg in the process only makes it a more bitter pill to digest.

Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540; Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @genefrenette 

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Dead-end offense: Jaguars sputter in red zone in 17-9 loss to Chiefs