LAS VEGAS (AP) — The New England Patriots decided playing for overtime wasn’t enough. They avoided OT, but not in the way they intended.
On the final play of regulation, Rhamondre Stevenson took a handoff, found running room and gained 23 yards. Then he went off-script, flipping the ball back to Jakobi Meyers, who tried to keep the play alive by tossing the ball across the field — where Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Chandler Jones was waiting.
“At first, I thought, ‘Who’s around me?’” Jones said. “I felt myself stumble a little backwards, and then I was thinking, ‘Who do I pitch it to?’”
Jones grabbed Meyers’ bizarre, unnecessary lateral out of the air, stiff-armed Patriots quarterback Mac Jones to the turf and returned the ball 48 yards for a touchdown, giving the Raiders an improbable 30-24 victory on Sunday.
“I don’t know Chandler’s 40 time, but when you stiff-arm, (the player) goes down,” Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said. “He made it to the end zone. It’s an unbelievable play.”
The wild finish bailed out the Raiders (6-8), who led 17-3 at halftime before allowing the Patriots to score 21 straight points. Las Vegas scored two touchdowns in the final 32 seconds and seriously damaged New England’s playoff hopes.
“We talk about situational football,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “We talk about it every week, but we obviously have to do a better job playing situational football and not making critical mistakes.”
Stevenson, who went to high school in Las Vegas, had 19 carries for 172 yards, including a 34-yard touchdown with 3:43 left that appeared to be the dagger.
But the Raiders answered twice in the final minute.
Carr converted a fourth-and-10 from the Las Vegas 19-yard line with a 12-yard completion to Mack Hollins just after the two-minute warning. That set up Carr finding Keelan Cole in the left corner of the end zone for a 30-yard TD with 32 seconds left. Cole’s left foot came down close to the boundary, but the call was upheld on review.
NFL senior vice president of officiating Walt Anderson told a pool reporter there wasn’t a clear enough replay to change the call.
“Had the ruling on the field been incomplete, we would not have been able to change that, either,” Anderson said.
Cole, still holding the ball in the locker room, wouldn’t debate whether he was inbounds.
But there was no arguing what this loss means to the Patriots, who had won five of six games to get into playoff position. New England (7-7) fell one game out of the final AFC playoff spot, and its last three games are all against teams that have either clinched or are in position for the postseason.
The disastrous final play cost Belichick a chance to beat his longtime assistant, Raiders coach Josh McDaniels.
“It’s probably the most insane ending I’ve ever been a part of,” McDaniels said. “We’ll take it. We’ll take it for sure.”
