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Trevor Lawrence Perfectly Described How He Felt on Stumbling, Go-Ahead Jaguars TD

The Jaguars quarterback was in panic mode.
Lawrence found the end zone for a go-ahead score after stumbling to the ground.
Lawrence found the end zone for a go-ahead score after stumbling to the ground. | Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Jacksonville Jaguars emerged victorious 31-28 over the Chiefs on Monday night thanks to one of the most bizarre, go-ahead touchdown runs you'll ever see. Trailing by four points and facing first-and-goal from the Kansas City 1-yard line with under 30 seconds left in the game, Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence took the snap and immediately stumbled backwards after right guard Patrick Mecari stepped on his foot, causing the Jaguars signal-caller to fall to the ground before scrambling to his feet. Lawrence then turned upfield and broke one tackle before diving for the end zone for the improbable score.

After the game, Lawrence, in an on-field interview with ESPN's Laura Rutledge, described what he was feeling when he fell down on the wacky play.

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"Just panic. Sheer panic," Lawrence said. "On the ground, we didn’t have any timeouts, I got stepped on coming up, and I was like, ‘I gotta get up.’ I was just gonna throw it out of bounds to stop the clock, but there was really no one around me so I made a play."

Lawrence's emotions after falling down were not unlike those of his coach, Liam Coen.

"Throw it away!" Coen told reporters of what he was thinking in that moment. "He got stepped on and he's coming out of it and you're like, 'Oh my gosh, throw it away so we can have another down.' Tough moment, I can only imagine where he was at in that moment on the ground, but to get up, break three tackles, shed some dude off and go running in. That's an unbelievable individual effort. Yeah, we'd love it to be cleaner and make it a nice executed play, but at the end of the day it's about winning. I'm proud of the toughness he showed at the end of the game."

The unconventional rushing touchdown was the second of Lawrence's two rushing scores, to go along with 221 passing yards, one touchdown and an interception in Jacksonville's upset win.

It wasn't always pretty but a win is a win.


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Tim Capurso
TIM CAPURSO

Tim Capurso is a staff writer for Sports Illustrated, primarily covering MLB, college football and college basketball. Before joining SI in November 2023, Capurso worked at RotoBaller and ClutchPoints and is a graduate of Assumption University. When he's not working, he can be found at the gym, reading a book or enjoying a good hike. A resident of New York, Capurso openly wonders if the Giants will ever be a winning football team again.