“Probably the most insane ending I think I’ve ever been a part of” said Josh McDaniels who was on Patriots staff for the Tuck Rule game.
We’re all still sitting in stunned disbelief in how the Raiders vs Patriots game ended Sunday. Even the players and coaches were left searching for the right words to describe what happened.
To set the scene we need to go back to the previous drive.
With just over two minutes left, the Raiders took over, down 24-17. They needed a touchdown to tie it up and they got one on a play that looked very much like it would be rule incomplete. But it was ruled a touchdown on the field and after review, they upheld it.
It meant the Raiders went from blowing a 17-3 lead to coming back to tie it up at 24-24. And it happened with the Raiders having a call go their way. Not something that they were used to having happen classically.
Derek Carr in particular remembers at least two previous occasions when the ending was crazy and things did *not* go the Raiders way.
“I remember my rookie year,” said Carr, recalling the Raiders trip to New England in week three, “We go down on two-minute drive, and we run in the end zone and all of a sudden there’s a flag. And the next play I throw it to my receiver (Denarius Moore) checking it down and Vince Wilfork picks it. I was like can we please just have one go our way, you know? And when they showed that one view where they saw [Keelan Cole’s] foot hit the grass and then his foot hit, we started going nuts and then the refs next to us said touchdown and we went nuts.”
The Patriots would take the ball with :32 seconds remaining. They could try to win it in regulation, but if not, they could just send it to overtime. Neither of those options are how it would go down.
What actually happened is hard to describe properly, so it’s best to just watch it yourself.
“They’re trying to run the clock out to go to overtime and break some tackles,” Carr recalls. “They get down there, and it’s hard as a competitor, you get down there and they start tossing it around. You get it and it’s hard to just sit down on it and give up on the play. . . Crazy he threw it back and Chandler [Jones] caught it . . .and I don’t know his 40 time, but when you stiff arm it goes down a little bit. But he made it to the end zone, it was an unbelievable play, and I’m glad we had one go our way that way.”
Jones’s head coach remember what was going through his head on the play.
“Don’t get tackled by the quarterback,” Josh McDaniels said of Jones catching the lateral. “Once Rhamondre [Stevenson] pitched the ball to Jacobi [Meyers], I figured we’d just tackle whoever had it and that would be it, we’d go to overtime. And then when he lateraled the ball, I had no idea…it didn’t seem like a lateral play to me when they handed the ball off to the back. When they handed it to the back, I was like tackle him, go to overtime and then when I saw the ball in the air and when I saw Chandler underneath it, I thought oh my God, we might have a chance at this. And when he caught it, I saw Mac was back there and I was just hoping he could avoid whatever effort Mac had to tackle him and then hopefully he had enough juice left in his body to get to the end zone.”
The result of all that craziness was Carr getting his first ever win against the Patriots. In fact, prior to Sunday, it was the closest he ever came to beating them.
“We’ve seen our fair share of things happen,” Carr added. “But I have not seen that one. I’m glad it went our way. I’ve stood up here and answered some hard questions sometimes about what happened and I don’t even know how to tell you what happened sometimes.
But Carr’s memories about Raiders vs Patriots started long before he faced them as an NFL quarterback. He was ten years old when the Raiders faced the Patriots in the snow in what would became the infamous Tuck Rule game.
“I was like; a Patriot, Raider game ending in a review,” Carr continued. “I remember I was in Bakersfield California, it was night time and I was watching Charles Woodson strip the ball from Tom Brady. I don’t know how old I was, but I was sitting there with my dad watching the game.”
Josh McDaniels certainly remembers that game as well. He was on the Patriots’ coaching staff for that game. McDaniels was also on the staff for the game in Carr’s rookie season when Vince Wilford had the game-winning interception. And McDaniels puts this ending atop any game he’s been a part of.
“It’s football. The ball bounces crazy ways,” said McDaniels. “It’s not a predictable game sometimes 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.”
It’s certainly possible that even if the game had gone to overtime that the Raiders pull out the win. But thanks to that TD catch call going their way and the Patriots making an incredibly dumb, unnecessary play, they got the win in regulation.
The Raiders improve to 6-8 on the season. Even with a loss, they wouldn’t have been officially eliminated from playoff contention, but with a winning record still a possibility, they remain in the hunt.
Next up they head to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers, followed by the 49ers at home New Year’s Day, and finally a trip to Arrowhead to face the Chiefs.
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