The Las Vegas Raiders’ win probability peaked at 98.8 percent Thursday night. They led 16-3 with fewer than four minutes to play. The quarterback on the other sideline was Baker Mayfield, 2022’s worst starter, a refugee from the Carolina Panthers and a Los Angeles Ram for all of two days.
The Las Vegas Raiders did not win this game. Instead, Mayfield led the league’s second epic rally from a 16-3 deficit in the final four minutes in four days, joining Tom Brady as this year’s comeback masters. Truly, the first eight days of December called out for a hero and two true legends — the man with seven Super Bowl rings and the guy from those Progressive commercials — answered the call.
The loss wasn’t especially shocking for the Raiders. In the first year of Josh McDaniels’ tenure as head coach they’ve blown three different 17-0 leads. They’re responsible for the only win of Jeff Saturday’s coaching career above the high school ranks. They are, at their worst, a freight train that understands a couch has been left on the tracks a mile ahead but cannot change course or apply the brakes in time to avoid the collision.
Week 14’s loss unfolded more dramatically than most. In true Raiders fashion, some of these wounds were self inflicted. Others were the result of players rising up against them to make plays they typically would not. So how did this all happen?
Friends, this is a play that unfolded in roughly 90 seconds of game time and five acts.
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