The Chiefs aren’t used to close games not going their way and they turned on one another Friday night after a mistake cost them a chance at a comeback win.
Star defensive lineman Chris Jones and Drue Tranquill yelled at one another after Jones seemingly made a mistake on the fateful 3rd-and-14 conversion that sealed the Chargers’ 27-21 win in Brazil.
“No comment,” Jones said when asked about the incident.
Kansas City (0-1) had a chance to get the ball back for Patrick Mahomes while trailing by the final score after Tranquill, a linebacker, sacked Herbert on second down to set up third-and-14 with 2:14 remaining.
Jones, lined up as the left defensive end for the third-down play and went inside against the tackle when Herbert dropped back.
Herbert moved to his right while Jones pressured him from an inside line, and with Jones taking the inside route it left the outside lane unprotected.
The quarterback easily scampered for 19 yards to secure the first down, which allowed the Chargers to bleed the clock.
Jones blamed himself for going inside with his pass rush and giving up containment.
“I should have stayed outside,” Jones said. “I blame me. Could have pass rushed better, could have had a better pass rush, could have contained better. I blame myself.”
As Kurt Warner broke down the mistake on the broadcast, the cameras captured Jones and Tranquill arguing while surrounded by their teammates.
Jones emphatically pointed toward the ground while yelling at Tranquill, who turned his head and said something while looking away.
Teammates stood between the two while they continued to chirp, with Tranquill yelling at Jones while the lineman started to turn his back to him.
“Wow, heated moments there on defensive side,” announcer Rich Eisen said. “Chris Jones, an all-world player. Tranquill is the one who got the sack to put them in a position to stop on third down and get Mahomes on the field with slightly less than two minutes for a chance to win this…”
Jones and Tranquill will have to put these feelings to the side fast with a Super Bowl 2025 rematch looming in Week 2 in Kansas City against an Eagles team that pounded them in February.
It won’t help that receiver Xavier Worthy’s status is uncertain after he left the game in the first quarter following collision with Travis Kelce that will result in him undergoing an MRI.
“You’re looking at the first game of the season, and you can’t judge the team’s success by one game or even one particular play,” Jones said. “We have 16 more game. We have 16 more opportunities to get better. We can watch, make some corrections, fix some errors. I think it was a surplus of inflicted errors, offsides, roughing the passers, multiple times we shot ourselves in the foot. Some self-inflicted wounds that we can fix and detail that up, and I think we can improve in that aspect.”
