Josh McDaniels, like so many others who watched the unspeakable conclusion to Sunday’s game between the Las Vegas Raiders and New England Patriots, couldn’t have ever pictured an NFL contest ending in such a manner.
“I mean, this is football, the ball bounces crazy ways,” McDaniels told reporters after a walk-off touchdown by Raiders pass rusher Chandler Jones lifted Las Vegas to a 30-24 victory against Bill Belichick’s Patriots.
“It’s not a predictable game sometimes,” McDaniels continued. “And obviously the ending was probably the most insane ending I think I’ve ever been a part of. But we’ll take it. We’ll take it for sure.”
The ending McDaniels is referring to came down to the final play of the game.
With less than 10 seconds remaining in a 24-all tie game, Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson took a handoff 23 yards to the Las Vegas 32-yard line only to pitch it to receiver Jakobi Meyers with no time on the clock. Meyers then went backwards to the Las Vegas 40-yard line and unleashed a full-fledged pass intended for quarterback Mac Jones, who was near the line of scrimmage at the New England 45-yard line.
Meyers’ attempt to Mac Jones was intercepted by Chandler Jones at the New England 48-yard line and the Raiders star defender ran the final 40 yards untouched and into the end zone.
“Don’t get tackled by the quarterback,” McDaniels said when asked what was going through his mind when Chandler Jones caught the ball. “Once Rhamondre pitched the ball to Jakobi I figured we’d probably just tackle whoever had it and then that would be it we’d go to overtime.”
McDaniels continued: “When I saw the ball up in the air and I saw Chandler underneath it I’m thinking ‘Oh my God, we might have a chance at this.’ And when he caught it, I saw Mac was back there and just hoping he could avoid whatever effort Mac had to tackle him and hopefully had enough juice left in his body to get to the end zone.”
Chandler Jones did just that, throwing Mac Jones into the earth’s core before the Raiders celebrated the unspeakable result.
