Meadowlands Miracle for Raiders: Carr To Ruggs For Game-Winning 46-Yard TD Pass With Five Seconds Left In Wild 31-28 Comeback Win
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
It was the Las Vegas Raiders’ Miracle at the Meadowlands Sunday.
Raiders quarterback Derek Carr lofted a 46-yard touchdown toss to speedy 4.27-in-40 wide receiver Henry Ruggs III, who waited for the ball to drop out of the sky into his arms and give the Las Vegas Raiders a crazy 31-28 cardiac comeback win over the hapless and winless New York Jets. The Raiders survived the nail-biter in New Jersey and improved to 7-5 to stay in the playoff hunt, while the Jets dropped to 0-12 and remained in the driver’s seat to snag the draft’s presumptive number one choice, Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence.
“I’ll say, that was a great win for us,” Raiders coach Jon Gruden said after the game. “I’m really proud of our players and how they finished. There are plenty of things to clean up, but we were missing a lot of key players today. To win on the East Coast on a short week after a tough outing is a character builder for us. I’m really proud of the guys.”
The Las Vegas Raiders overcame a sluggish defensive start and survived an East Coast New Jersey visit by coming back twice to defeat the Jets.
Leading the Raiders to the road win was tight end Darren Waller, who scored two pivotal touchdowns in the first half as the Raiders turned a 13-7 deficit into a 24-13 lead by the third quarter at the Meadowlands. But the Jets rebounded with 15 straight points in the fourth quarter to grab a 28-24 lead before Carr found Ruggs for the game-winning TD toss.
I’ll let the players tell you about the last play. Derek (Carr) made a great call to fix the protection and to give us a chance to launch it. After Henry Ruggs fumbled the football and he was involved in the interception, I thought he should have caught that pass, a lot of guys would hang their heads and go in the tank. For him to win that game for us, it just says a lot about the football character he has and we have. I hope that sums it up. — Raiders coach Jon Gruden
Gruden on Waller: “He’s special. If you look at where he caught passes, he caught them at wide receiver, playing split end, he caught them as a flanker, he caught them in the slot. He caught them everywhere and he ran all kinds of routes. A lot of guys can’t even dream of doing what Darren Waller can do and I think he solidified today clearly as one of the top Pro Bowl tight ends in this business.”
The Raiders defense was gashed by the Jets on an opening game drive when the winless New York team scored early to make it 7-0. But defensive end Clelin Ferrell with two big strip sacks and defensive back Trayvon Mullen with a spectacular ESPN Top Ten interception sparked the Raiders comeback. Here’s Gruden on Ferrell:
“That was great. He’s had the coronavirus. He’s missed a couple of weeks. He’s had a tough start to this season. We were missing some defensive linemen and some defensive players today and he made some impact plays. That’s what we need from him. He’s a hard-nosed, energized finishing player. He’s got a lot of football character that we’re going to lean on also.”
The Jets made this battle a competitive game with a Sam Darnold TD run to cut the lead to 24-19. A two-point conversion made it 24-21 with 10:10 left in the 4Q. The Jets went ahead with a running touchdown before the Raiders came back to win a thriller.
“I’ve been supporting the Jets for 35 years, they have been inventing new ways to lose for almost all of them. It was almost like losing was part of the game plan,” said local las Vegas radio broadcaster Chris Chapman in a Tweet.
It was a crazy one, indeed.
The Browns, Dolphins and Colts all won Sunday, three teams ahead of the Raiders for the playoffs. The Raiders play the Colts at Allegiant Stadium next Sunday. LVSportsBiz.com will be there to report the game.
