From his cubicle in the corner of the visitors’ locker room at SoFi Stadium, Chris Jones wanted you know that he will consent to an interview ... but only after he continues to playfully make his case for reversing a scoring decision that cost him a half-sack two weeks earlier.
Sacks hold a special place in Jones’ heart, and he can’t get enough of them. Twice In the Chiefs’ 17-10 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, he brought down L.A. quarterback Justin Herbert and wrecked drives.
“What do they say? If you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything?” Jones said. “They took my sack away ... All right, let’s roll.”
The two-time All-Pro tackle muscled his way through a Chargers offensive line that was missing injured starting tackles Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater for game-altering sacks late in the first and second halves.
Jones greeted Herbert on what became the Chargers’ final snap. The host team faced a third-and-11 from its own 45-yard line when Jones corralled Herbert for a four-yard loss.
L.A. never got the ball back as the Chiefs burned the final four minutes off the clock.
The Chiefs’ biggest defensive stop of the game came late in the third quarter, with the score knotted at 10-10. And it wasn’t sack.
The Chargers had driven to the Chiefs’ 3 and faced a fourth-and-1. Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh called for a pass, but Jones made certain the play wouldn’t succeed. He flushed Herbert to his right and blew up the play.
Former Lee’s Summit High and Kansas State standout Felix Anudike-Uzomah helped finish off the action as the ball hit the ground.
“That’s a seven-point play (for the defense),” Chiefs linebacker Drue Tranquill said.
But don’t bother asking Jones which moment was his favorite, or most influential, from Sunday’s game.
“I think a lot of plays affected the game, not just one play,” he said. “Maybe four or five.”
If that’s so, Jones was in on most of them. In addition to his sacks, which give him three for the season, he was credited with three quarterback hurries and four tackles. And those were huge plays as the Chiefs’ defense held the opponent to its lowest scoring and yardage output (224) of the season.
Increasingly, the identity of this Chiefs team is being shaped by its defense. For the fourth straight game, an opponent’s rushing leader was held well below his season average. This time it was J.K. Dobbins: He gained just 32 yards, averaging a meager 3.2 yards per carry.
The Chiefs quickly fell behind 10-0 when L.A. turned a pair of turnovers into points. But that was it. The next four Los Angeles drives produced a total of one first down and minus-13 total yards. A missed field goal and the fourth-down stop were the Chargers’ best scoring opportunities.
The Chiefs’ defense came into Sunday’s game a man down, too. Defensive end Mike Danna turned up on the team’s injury report late in the week and was out. So Anudike-Uzomah got his first career start.
The Chiefs continued to thrive, primarily because of Jones.
“In my opinion, and I think in a lot of people would agree, he’s the most dominant one-on-one pass rusher in the NFL,” said Tranquill, the former Charger. “He can rush inside, he can rush outside.
“We’re trying every week to try and figure out how we can get him one on one, because his win rate is so high.”
Jones got one of his biggest wins on this same field last season when the Chiefs ended the regular-season at SoFi Stadium. They had already clinched their playoff seed, so most of the starters sat.
But not Jones, who needed one more sack to reach 10 for the season and trigger a $1.25 million contract bonus. He recorded the lucrative sack in the third quarter, then sprinted to the sideline to celebrate with teammates.
No such celebration here on Sunday — just more sack-hunting from Jones on the field ... and in the locker room.
