Broke in Vegas: Patriots’ Last-Second Gamble Fails in Epic 30-24 Loss to Raiders
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New England blew a seven-point lead in the final :32, losing to the Raiders on a lateral attempt returned for a touchdown on the game’s final play.
Trying too hard to make something out of nothing, Jakobi Meyers cost his team everything.
In a must-win game that they were indeed one play – perhaps one inch – from capturing, the New England Patriots lost to the Las Vegas Raiders, 30-24, in one of the most bizarre, bone-head endings in NFL history.
Simply trying to get to overtime after surrendering a game-tying touchdown pass with :32 remaining, the Patriots handed the ball to Rhamondre Stevenson as the fourth-quarter clock hit :00. Stevenson ran to Las Vegas’ 32-yard line, where he decided to lateral the ball to Meyers. The receiver took the ball backward eight yards to the 40 before – inexplicably – throwing a 15-yard lateral in the general direction of quarterback Mac Jones back on New England’s side of the 50.
Technically a “fumble”, the looping attempt was picked off by former Patriot Chandler Jones at New England’s 48. After a leaping catch, the Raiders’ defensive end stiff-armed Mac Jones and ran untouched for one of the wildest, wackiest, walk-off touchdowns in the history of professional football.
Admitted Meyers, “I was trying to be a hero.”
Last week, the Patriots stayed out west.
On Sunday, their season went completely south.
The Pats were one play from winning in regulation, but allowed a 12-yard completion on 4th-and-10 from Las Vegas’ 19-yard line. The drive continued and Raiders’ quarterback Derek Carr hit Keelan Cole with a 30-yard touchdown pass over rookie cornerback Marcus Jones that tied the score with :32 remaining. The play was reviewed but a ruled a touchdown when Cole’s left toes landed just an inch inbound.
Las Vegas scored 13 points in the game’s final half-minute.
In a climax that topped even the Dolphins’ miraculous multi-lateral touchdown that beat the Patriots in 2018, perhaps this one was payback to the Raiders’ for the infamous “Tuck Rule” playoff game in 2001.
There have been exactly two game-winning walk-off touchdowns on multi-lateral plays in NFL history: the Patriots in 2018 to Miami and what happened Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.
The Patriots, which took a 24-17 lead on Stevenson’s 34-yard touchdown run with five minutes remaining, got the help in the playoff standings that they needed. But now at 7-7 with a tough trio against the Cincinnati Bengals, Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills, their postseason hopes spectacularly crashed in the desert.
After beating the Arizona Cardinals last Monday night, the Pats stayed out west to prepare for this one. But they still looked jet-lagged early, falling behind the Raiders by 14 points before staging a second-half comeback that was ruined by Meyers’ epic gaffe.
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