As the Kansas City Chiefs come to terms with an opening night 27-21 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in Brazil, they will likely be haunted by questions of what might have been.<\/p>\n
Just before the two-minute warning, Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert had just taken a sack and faced a third-and-14 from his own 33-yard line. Defensive tackle Chris Jones lined up outside and appeared to have a play, only to see Herbert correctly guess Jones\u2019 inside turn. Herbert would run outside for an easy first-down conversion, allowing the Chargers to spend the final two minutes icing the game.<\/p>\n
After the loss, Jones spoke to the media \u2014 and took ownership for the play.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tackle jumped me,\u201d the veteran recalled if the ill-timed play. \u201cI think we were at even \u2014 two threes and two fives. I just should have stayed outside. I blame me. I could have pass-rushed better. I could have had a better pass rush. I could have contained better. Yeah, I blame myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
After playing in a standalone game \u2014 and with nine days for fans to dwell on the loss before hosing the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 2 in a rematch of Super Bowl LIX \u2014 the loss will sting for players and fans. Jones cautions against making sweeping generalizations from one game.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re looking at the first game of the season,\u201d he reiterated, \u201cand you can\u2019t judge the team\u2019s success by one game \u2014 or even one particular play. We have 16 more games. We have 16 more opportunities to get better. We can watch and make some corrections [and] fix some errors. Plus the self-inflicted errors: offsides, roughing the passer \u2014 multiple times, we shot ourselves in the foot. Some of the self-inflicted wounds we can fix and detail that up, and I think we can improve in that aspect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the Chiefs are no longer reigning Super Bowl champions, Jones does not expect the pressure to let off from opponents. He expects every team\u2019s best shot, and he knows the Chiefs cannot afford performances like Friday\u2019s going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a high-energy team,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to go into every game plan like it\u2019s a Super Bowl. Anytime teams play the Chiefs, it\u2019s an opportunity to play a Super Bowl-caliber team and you get to see where your team is at. I think it was kind of flat early on, and we\u2019ve got to start off a little faster as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones declined to elaborate on a much-scrutinized exchange with linebacker Drue Tranquil after Herbert\u2019s scramble essentially ended the game. He did elaborate on what the team\u2019s defensive leaders should focus on going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think first eliminating mistakes to beat ourselves,\u201d Jones observed. \u201cOnce we eliminate the small mistakes and small errors, we can fix those self-inflicted wounds. Then we can focus on the bigger things \u2014 but most importantly, fixing the small details.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Kansas City Chiefs come to terms with an opening night 27-21 loss to the Los Angeles…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":204585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[4161,3012,1232,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-204584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs-news","9":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs-roster","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115156553886059915","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}