The Kansas City Chiefs had all the momentum going their way. Back-to-back wins over the New York Giants and the Baltimore Ravens made it seem like they were finally shaking off their early-season rust…. Until an injury-stricken Jacksonville Jaguars pulled off a thriller. While the scoreline reads 31-28 on paper, the reality is the Chiefs have been struggling at places they haven’t for a long time. So, expectedly, when Patrick Mahomes spoke after the game, it sounded like a guy who’s running out of answers.

“We’ve got to be better,” the quarterback said without sugarcoating after the game. “We’ve lost too many games already.”

“We have the guys and we’ve executed at certain points in games and looked really good, but we crush ourselves with penalties and mistakes. We’ve done that to ourselves all season long. It’s been one guy here or there. In this league, it’s so close that those [moments] change games,” the quarterback then concluded.

The Chiefs now sit at 2-3, and that’s not a record anyone in Kansas City is used to seeing. The last time they had an identical record was back in 2021, before winning the AFC Championship. So, a 2-3 record isn’t the end of the world. But for a Patrick Mahomes-led Chiefs team that still feels wrong. After all, their standard is the Lombardi, and through five weeks, they’ve looked more like a team searching for itself than one competing for the championship.

Mahomes, as always, tried to carry everyone on his back. He threw for 318 yards, a touchdown, and a pick. As has been the trend this season, he also led the team in rushing with 60 yards and another score. But that brutal third-quarter 99-yard Devin Llyod pick 6 (the longest interception return in the regular season by a linebacker in NFL history) flipped the entire script as it led to the Jaguars taking their first lead at 21-14, which eventually snowballed into the Chiefs’ third loss of the season.

Notably, this also meant that the Jaguars finally ended an eight-game losing streak to the Chiefs, with Trevor Lawrence making a difference with crucial plays. While he did have an early fumble, Lawrence also accounted for a perfect pass to WR Brian Thomas Jr, resulting in a 33-yard gain. The QB also ran for a team-high 54 yards, while completing 18 of 25 passes for 221 yards and one touchdown.

Travis Hunter, on the other hand, also turned a lot of heads with his incredible performance: A 44-yard catch in the third quarter. Overall, the two-way superstar ended the night with a career-high 64 yards. He also played 39% of the Jaguars’ defensive snaps, the same as the last four games.

As for the Chiefs, next week doesn’t get any easier. They’ve got the Detroit Lions, a team that’s been as solid as any this year, and are leading the NFL in total points scored (174). The moods couldn’t be more different between these two locker rooms. For the Chiefs, this one’s basically a must-win situation.

And who knows that better than the Chiefs QB, explaining why his patience is running on thin ice…

Patrick Mahomes believes the locker room let the game “slip away”

Patrick Mahomes put the locker room on notice after not being able to hold on to the lead. “Obviously sucks, you know, you let a game slip away. Credit to them, they played hard the entire game, and they’ve got a lot of good football players, and they closed out there at the end,” Mahomes said.

“So, it still sucks whenever you get a lead like that and you’re not able to hold it through the rest of the game,” he added.

Kansas City jumped to a 14–0 lead early, and it felt like the Jaguars were about to fold. Then Trevor Lawrence woke up. He rushed for a 10-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Cam Little made no mistake on the extra point attempt, and the Chiefs found the Jaguars breathing down their necks at 14-14. Then happened the pick 6.

But the game wasn’t over. With less than 2 minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Chiefs had the Jaguars trailing again at 28-24, thanks to a Kareem Hunt TD and an extra point from Harrison Butker. But then Butker himself botched everything by kicking the ball out of bounds—a penalty (there were many) that put the Jaguars at the 40-yard line.

Make no mistake, the Jaguars almost bottled it, too. With less than a minute remaining, they got slapped with a 5-yard penalty for ‘Delay of Game’. And Lawrence almost didn’t make it to the end zone on that final possession, having tripped twice. But he did. And that’s what counts.