Nothing came easy for Trevor Lawrence on his 1-yard line.
When he first arrived there, he skied over a pile, the ball leading the way, and had it punched out to begin a 14-point swing.
When he arrived there last, he was stepped on and fell to the ground.
Lawrence, on his second try, was able to rise from the ground on his way to the end zone, propelling his Jacksonville Jaguars to a chaotic 31-28 triumph on Monday night over the Kansas City Chiefs.
"We had a good goal line play that we liked off of low play-action," said Lawrence of the game-winning play. "But never got to see it because it was going down as I came out of center. So, I mean just panic, honestly because I was trying to get up to get the ball out of my hands so the clock -- I mean we didn't have any timeouts. So, I was really going to just stand up and, like, launch it out the back of the end zone. But then I had a little bit of a lane, so I took it and scored from there."
With his stumble to six, Lawrence put the Jaguars ahead, 30-28, on a 1-yard run with 23 seconds to play. Following Cam Little's extra point, the Jaguars had roared back from a 28-24 deficit with just 1:45 on the clock.
Lawrence's score capped a wild seven-play, 60-yard drive that was very much a summation of the game for the quarterback and his offense. There were highlights aplenty and just as many head-scratching plays during a twisting, turning roller-coaster for 60 minutes.
"I mean, it's a big win," said Lawrence, who won for the first time on Monday night in three tries. "Obviously, it's a good team. They've been a good team for a long time. They're hard to beat. They're really good situationally. Don't beat themselves. You know, at the end of the game, they're always in it. They always seem to make the plays. And even today, they went down and got some points there and we had to go win it. So, it was cool for us to go take it and have to go win at the end, put together a good drive. It's just another step for our team. I think showing up on a big stage does say something. You know, it's a big game."
Entering the evening, Lawrence sported a 75.1 passer rating, fourth-lowest in the NFL. On Monday, Lawrence was 18 of 25 for 221 yards, a touchdown, an interception and a 95.6 rating. He also had a team-high 54 rushing yards and two ground scores. It's clear Lawrence and his head coach are still working things out as it relates to running the offense, as this was anything but a smooth performance. Perhaps also important to note is that Lawrence celebrated his 26th birthday on Monday, doing so with his third full-time head coach in five seasons.
"Yeah, that's a goofy finish, but what a tough moment for him to be able to say like, 'He wasn't going to lose' and that's kind of really what it comes down to," Jaguars first-year head coach Liam Coen said. "He wasn't going to lose, and he made an unbelievable individual effort that hopefully can continue to springboard us."
On the Jaguars' aforementioned first foray to their 1-yard line early in the second quarter, Jacksonville was facing fourth-and-goal after picking up just 6 yards over the previous three plays. Lawrence attempted to sneak the ball for six, going over his line with the ball outstretched -- a fundamental no-no. Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton poked the ball away, setting Kansas City up for a 97-yard scoring drive and a huge swing of 14 points.
With the Jaguars trailing, 14-0, the game seemed to be in the makings for a blowout.
Jacksonville had trailed for less than 10 minutes over its previous four games and had never been behind by more than four points. Lawrence and Co. showed their resolve, answering with a 70-yard march of their own, ending with a Lawrence 3-yard TD toss to the emerging Parker Washington.
Down at halftime for the first time this season, the Jags tied the game on their opening drive after intermission. Lawrence scored on the ground from 10 yards out to cap an 87-yard salvo in which he found rookie first-round pick Travis Hunter for a 44-yard grab.
Then, it was Patrick Mahomes' turn for a gaffe at the 1-yard line, with Jags linebacker Devin Lloyd going 99 yards on a pick-six.
The up-and-down evening for Lawrence hit another low when he threw an interception that set up a Chiefs game-tying score. The pick by Trent McDuffie was of the controversial fashion as Washington was knocked down on the route by a Chiefs defender.
Nonetheless, it was soon a tie ball game.
The Jaguars vaulted back again, 24-21, but Mahomes, a maestro of fourth-quarter magic, would save the day for the Chiefs, or so it appeared. He led Kansas City on an 86-yard sojourn for a 28-24 go-ahead drive.
With 1:45 left, though, so began an absolutely haywire game-winning drive for the Jags.
For much of the game, the offense looked out of sync, clearly still finding its way in Coen's system. It's evident by the final stats -- 319 total yards, in particular -- but not the final results.
Handed good field position when Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker booted the kickoff out of bounds, Lawrence took an awful sack on second down rather than getting rid of the ball. Immediately, he bounced back with a sensational throw to Brian Thomas Jr. to convert third-and-7 with a 33-yard hook-up. He followed with another dime to Dyami Brown for 13 yards.
Back-to-back positive plays gave way to an ugly incompletion to Brown and then an inexplicable delay of game.
Facing third-and-13 from the Chiefs' 14-yard line, Lawrence went back to Thomas, only to be intercepted by Bryan Cook. Cook's pick was negated when defensive pass interference was called to give Lawrence a new set of downs back at the 1 with 30 ticks remaining on the clock.
Then came the stumble to six, beginning when Lawrence's right foot was stepped on by his right guard. He fell and initially failed to get up, but on a second try he did. Lawrence blew through one arm tackle and then dove under a second across the goal line. He got back up one more time after that, celebrating with his squad and tossing the ball high into the Duval sky.
It's a play that's already a Florida fish story, with Coen describing it with just a little embellishment concerning how many Chiefs defenders his QB broke loose from.
"Throw it away," Coen said of what was going through his head after Lawrence got back to his feet. "No, I mean, you know, when he got stepped on and he's coming out of it, and you're like, 'Oh, my gosh, throw it away' so we could have another down. Man, what an individual effort. I mean, obviously, tough moment -- where I can only imagine, where he was at in that moment. But to get up, break three tackles or whatever it was, two tackles, and shed some dude off and go running in. That's an unbelievable individual effort. Yeah, we'd love it to be cleaner and just make it a nice, executive play. But at the end of the day, it's about winning and I'm proud of the toughness that he showed at the end of that game."
It was most certainly a play that led to the Jaguars' first 4-1 start since 2007, breaking a three-game prime-time losing streak for the franchise in the process. On the 2025 schedule, this is the only prime-time game for the Jaguars. In unconventional and often unpretty fashion, the Jaguars defeated the three-time reigning AFC champions and let a national audience know there's some noise being made in Duval.
"I mean, we feel like we are," said Lawrence when asked if Monday showed the Jaguars are a legitimate contender. "So, I don't think it's a bad thing, but we've got a long season. We've played five games, so there's a lot of football left. We have to take it week by week. Obviously, we think we're a good team, so we believe that. You don't listen to the outside noise and not many of those people were around beginning of the season. So, it's really about the guys in the locker room, the staff, coaches and all the people that put the work in and we have that confidence and belief. That's what matters."
