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It was one of the craziest finishes to an NFL game ever.
Defensive end Chandler Jones intercepted a bizarre, unnecessary lateral pass by New England’s Jakobi Meyers on the final play of the game and returned it 48 yards for a touchdown, giving the Las Vegas Raiders a 30-24 NFL victory over the Patriots.
With the game tied 24-all, the Patriots decided to run a series of pitches in a last-ditch attempt to avoid overtime.
Rhamondre Stevenson threw the ball to Meyers, who heaved it across the field only to see it caught by a rival in Jones, who stiff-armed Patriots quarterback Mac Jones and then had nothing but open field in front of him.
Sunday’s wild finish bailed out the Raiders (6-8), who led 17-3 at halftime before allowing the Patriots (7-7) to score 21 straight points.
Las Vegas scored two touchdowns in the final 32 seconds and seriously damaged New England’s playoff hopes.
Stevenson had 19 carries for 172 yards for New England, including a 34-yard touchdown with 3:43 left that appeared to put the game away.
But the Raiders answered inside the final minute, when Derek Carr found Keenan Cole in the left corner of the end zone for a 30-yard TD.
Many wondered why the Pats didn’t just force the game into extra time. Quarterback Mac Jones was quick to throw his coach under the bus when asked about their final play, simply answering “I think you just have to ask coach Belichick.”
“Unfortunately here today we collectively made too many mistakes and gave up too many big plays that obviously were the difference in this game,” said coach Bill Belichick after the game.
When asked if his side should have thrown a ‘Hail Mary’ pass to the end zone, Belichick replied: “We couldn’t throw that far.”
As expected, the reactions to the finish were priceless, with Twitter users having a field day over the bizarre ending.
Mac Jones admitted after the game that he ‘did get emotional’ after the realisation of his match-winning try had sunk in.
“It hit me how big of a play I had made,” said Jones.
And doing that in front of your home crowd would have felt like Christmas had come early for everyone at the stadium.
Well, except for this guy.
© AAP
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