Chiefs treated Jaguars like a preseason opponent

The Jacksonville Jaguars lost a close game on Sunday to the Kansas City Chiefs, going down 19-14. It was a game that appeared to be on the verge of another snowball blowout, but the Jaguars righted the ship and ended up being in position to go down the field at the end of the game and win with a touchdown, but they once again fell short and moved to 2-6 on the season. One of the biggest takeaways from the game I saw from fans outside of the Chris Ivory fumble situation, was how well the defense played.

The Jaguars defense stifled the Chiefs offense most of the day, with the Chiefs scores coming off of turnovers setting them up in striking distance. The Chiefs were just 1-for-14 on third downs (7 percent) and had just 231 total yards. The Chiefs rushing attack was non-existent with just 2.8 yards per carry, but there is kind of a catch to the Jaguars stellar defensive performance.

It was against primarily backups for the Chiefs.

The Chiefs treated the Jaguars game essentially like it was a preseason game, resting players that could have played, because they didn’t think they needed them to beat Jacksonville and they were right.

The Chiefs offense was without their starting quarterback, their starting running back, their primary back up running back, without Jeremy Maclin for 95 percent of the game and without Travis Kelce for nearly half the game and this isn’t even bringing up the players missing on defense. The Chiefs offense was severely handicapped and they got dominated by an OK defense, which is exactly what should happen when a team is missing that many pieces of their offense.

I know people think I enjoy throwing wet blankets on stuff like this, but I can’t take turning losses into moral victories anymore. Shutting down an offense that is massing that many pieces isn’t something to pat yourself on the back over, it’s something that is to be expected. It’s like the whole “at least we’re not the Browns” thing people do. That is not something to brag about.

The Jaguars defense is much improved overall this season, as they added a lot more speed and athleticism to it, but there is still a ways to go. Sunday’s performance doesn’t really tell you much of anything about the Jaguars defense outside of they’re beyond defecating themselves. Well, maybe, because they did that against the Titans.