Chris Jones' stunning lack of effort is emblematic of a Chiefs dynasty on the ropes

The Kansas City Chiefs lost a football game last night. That would normally be pretty noteworthy news in the last decade or so, but this year, it's a much more common occurrence. It's the third loss in five games for last year's Super Bowl runner-up, already eclipsing the total number of defeats they suffered in the regular season last year.

There are still 13 weeks to go before the postseason. That means there's plenty of time for Patrick Mahomes and company to turn things around, but also plenty of time for things to get even worse. This was the first time Mahomes had ever lost to the Jaguars, but given how well the Jags have played this year, there's no shame in dropping a Monday night road game to a good team. It's not the loss itself, though, it's the way it happened that should have fans concerned.

The game was a back-and-forth affair, and the deciding play was a fitting madcap conclusion. After the Chiefs were called for pass interference in the end zone, Trevor Lawrence took a snap from the 1, then was immediately stepped on by his lineman, causing him to fall to the ground. As he tried to get up, he fell back down again, like a hysterical teenager on the run from Jason Voorhees.

That's usually all she wrote for a counselor at Camp Crystal Lake, but somehow, nobody from the Chiefs was able to get to Lawrence. He was able to get back up and turn upfield, where he ran it into the end zone himself with just 23 seconds remaining. That turned a four-point deficit into what would become a three-point lead after Cam Little banged home the extra point.

Lawrence said after the game that he felt "panic, sheer panic," when he went down, but he still ended up the hero for having the presence of mind to get up and score. Lawrence deserves all the credit for making such a clutch play, but lost in the Jags' thrill of victory was one question: how did Steve Spagnuolo's normally reliable defense give up the game-winning score? A quick look at the tape gives us our answer.

Yes, that's three-time reigning First Team All-Pro Chris Jones standing almost stock still for the entire play, despite being close enough to potentially stop it. There's a millisecond where it looks like he's about to make a move to cut Lawrence off, but he just as quickly seemed to decide that it wasn't worth it.

Just to put this in perspective, if you got up off the couch to turn the TV off manually after the game finished, you put in more effort and burned more calories than Jones did on this play. If you stayed planted to the cushions and used the remote control, it's still really close assuming you lifted your arm at least a little bit.

On a night when Lawrence was caught in full HD picking his nose, somehow Jones is the one who should be most embarrassed about what viewers at home got to see. This is the supposed leader of the Chiefs defense, and a guy who is in the second year of a five-year, $158.75 million extension. This is beyond unacceptable if you're on the winless Jets. How does it fly for the best team of the last decade?

Chris Jones is showing us how a dynasty dies

It makes no sense that a guy who was a crucial part of three Super Bowl winners has completely lost it like this. This isn't a matter of his skills degrading, it's a matter of effort, the bare minimum you could ask of any player who steps onto the field, let alone one who makes so much.

My eight-year-old daughter is a very good soccer player. This past weekend, she apparently had an issue pregame with her teammates and then proceeded to pout through her entire game by giving the bare minimum effort while also displaying the worst body language I've seen since Jay Cutler was in his heyday. As a parent, it was mortifying, and we had a long talk after the game about how that kind of thing isn't acceptable for any reason. If you play, you give your best effort no matter what. Thankfully, my daughter's coach has four daughters herself and was extremely understanding of what an eight-year-old could be going through emotionally. She had a long productive talk with her, and practice yesterday was great all-around. I wonder if Andy Reid and Steve Spagnuolo will be as empathetic.

This isn't even the first dumb headline Jones has made this season. When the Chiefs lost their Super Bowl rematch to the Eagles at home in Week 2, he yelled at Jalen Hurts as Hurts was about to kneel out the clock, "You didn't even have 100 yards," to which Hurts hilariously replied with the NSFW version of pointing at the scoreboard.

Jones has somehow lost sight of what's important. Herm Edwards, help him out.

Jones' defense played well against the Eagles but didn't quite do enough to overcome a mediocre performance by the offense. There were no such excuses available last night, as Patrick Mahomes accounted for 378 yards. The defense could have closed the game out, but Jones didn't even try.

The Chiefs need Jones to be the game-wrecking force that he has been for his whole career, but failing that, they'd probably still be OK if he'd give at least a modicum of effort. Just within the AFC West, and Broncos and Chargers are putting up much more of a fight than they have in recent years, while teams like the Bills, Colts and yes, the Jags, look like worthy challengers also. The Chiefs dynasty is on the ropes, and Jones has to figure out if he's part of the problem or part of the solution.