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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher/Writer
It looked like the game the Raiders were winning, then losing, then tied against the New England Patriots was going to end up in overtime.
But if you’ve noticed, the Raiders have a certain thing for crazy endings to games this season of mostly heartbreak with some shock and joyfulness thrown in, too.
But on Sunday, the Raiders enjoyed a Chanukah Miracle, winning in walk-off fashion on an insane lateral play by the six-time Super Bowl-winning Patriots that will go down in NFL lore as one of the screwiest, bone-headed plays in league history.
It was 24-24 when the Patriots tried a lateral from wide receiver Jakobi Meyers to quarterback Mac Jones. But the lateral backfired when Raiders edge rusher Chandler Jones, who has gone through an underwhelming season with the Raiders, caught the ball, ran over QB Jones and sprinted to the end zone for a win that fans will never forget.
Raiders 30 Patriots 24, a shocking final.
QB Jones said after the game he had to make that tackle: “I got to tackle the guy. It’s on me, and it’s my fault. Because if we tackle him – or I tackle him – then we play for overtime. It’s all on me. Got to make that, not good enough by me. It is what it is, just got to tackle him and play for overtime. So, it’s on me.”
Raiders coach Josh McDaniels, who faced his Patriots mentor and NFL coaching genius Bill Belichick, put it this way after the game: “Sometimes it’s not pretty.”
Well, I’ve stood up here a lot this year after some crazy finishes. I just told the guys in the locker room; we keep fighting and keep playing with great effort. We obviously have a lot of character in our locker room and continue to fight and press on even what it felt like it was hard. Lost a lead there late the fourth quarter and guys came back and made the plays that they needed to make to win. I mean, it’s football, the ball bounces crazy, crazy ways. 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. — Raiders coach Josh McDaniels
The cleaning woman pushing the gray, plastic garbage can on wheels in the press box put it another way after the game: “Big crazy.”
It sure was big crazy because the Raiders were just happy to tie a game with 32 seconds left in the fourth quarter after they were winning 17-3 at halftime. A Raiders touchdown pass was reviewed for several minutes to decide whether the receiver was in or out of bounds in the Las Vegas end zone. It was ruled a touchdown and the game was deadlocked at 24.
Until the lateral backfired and Jones celebrated with a score nobody could predict.
Here’s Belichick after the game:
“If you’ve been with the Raiders, we’ve seen our fair share of things happen. I have not seen that happen,” Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said.
“You have to finish,” Carr said of the team winning with 00:00 on the clock. “In football, you never know.”
The Raiders are now 6-8, while the Patriots fell to 7-7.
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After watching the Las Vegas Raiders and New England Patriots play inside Allegiant Stadium, even casual fans could come to the conclusion they were watching two average NFL teams.
But don’t let the NFL teams’ mediocre play marked by self-inflicted mistakes fool you in terms of how valuable these franchises are as both are worth more than $5 billion each.
The Patriots ranked second in team value in the NFL at $6.4 billion with $230.5 billion in operating income, while the Raiders ranked ninth in the league at $5.1 billion in value with with operating income of $116.5 million, according to Forbes business magazine.
Raiders games are football games/tourist attractions.
There were New England Patriots fans up and down the Strip, from Wynn to Mandalay Bay. That’s how it was last season, too, when, the Raiders and their Allegiant Stadium hosted NFL foes from Washington, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Denver and even Cincinnati.
The Raiders generate more ticket revenue than any other team in the NFL, so the team’s bank account gets fat whether someone from Waltham, Massachusetts buys the ticket or the fan is from Henderson, Nevada.
The game itself was reminiscent of four games played by the Raiders where Las Vegas held leads of 13 points or more in four of the games only to lose them.
The Raiders led 17-3 at the half. But the Patriots scored 21 points in the second half for a 24-17 lead.
Then the Raiders rallied to tie the game and won it on the Immaculate Lateral.