If the Patriots ultimately miss the NFL playoffs by a single game, New England likely will look back to Week 15 and think about what could have been.
The Patriots looked like they were on their way to back-to-back road wins when they owned a touchdown lead late in the fourth quarter at Allegiant Stadium. New England eventually allowed Las Vegas to tie the game, but there were reasons to be confident in the Patriots' chances in overtime against a Raiders team that had been terrible in crunch-time situations all season long.
Unfortunately for New England, there was no extra frame on that mid-December afternoon.
Instead of killing the clock and sending the contest into OT, Rhamondre Stevenson and Jakobi Meyers tried to put together a last-ditch effort with the common but rarely successful lateral strategy. Meyers' dump-off proved to be the dagger, as it was intercepted by Chandler Jones, who shoved down Mac Jones en route to a game-winning touchdown.
For ESPN, the costly mistake was the defining moment of New England's season.
"It reflected how the sloppy Patriots came up short in many critical situations over the course of the season," Mike Reiss wrote. "It was incomprehensible and catastrophic to be treating the football with such disrespect. Per the Elias Sports Bureau, the score on the fumble return by the Raiders was the second go-ahead defensive TD on the final play of regulation in NFL history."
All hope isn't lost for the Patriots, who control their own destiny and can clinch the AFC's final wild card spot with wins in their last two regular-season games. But given the way New England has looked of late, wins over both division foes aren't likely.
