SI

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

The Jaguars quarterback was in panic mode.

Tim Capurso

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
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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.

"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 on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Prior to joining SI in November 2023, he wrote for RotoBaller and ClutchPoints, where he was the lead editor for MLB, college football and NFL coverage. A lifelong Yankees and Giants fan, Capurso grew up just outside New York City and now lives near Philadelphia. When he's not writing, he enjoys reading, exercising and spending time with his family, including his three-legged cat Willow, who, unfortunately, is an Eagles fan.

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