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End of game situations are an art, y’all
Never in my 22 years of life did I ever think I would say this:
The New England Patriots are a bad situational football team.
The Patriots lost to the Las Vegas Raiders on one of the most improbable plays I’ve ever seen, a pass thrown directly to Chandler Jones by Jakobi Meyers, and a Mac Jones tackle “attempt” that will go down in the annals of time.
In fact, I’m so out of words about this that I’m tagging in my friend Mark Schofield, because I truly have no idea what happened, then we’ll break down what happened using the All-22.
Well, my dear friend, we can start with this premise.
The Patriots are a bad situational football team right now, like you said.
Let’s not forget, this is not their first end-of-game meltdown in recent years. Back during the 2018 regular season, they lost to the Miami Dolphins when the Miami offense put together a lateral play of their own.
In that situation, the Patriots put Rob Gronkowski onto the field to defend against a Hail Mary. The problem? The Dolphins were on their own 30-yard line. It would take a throw of over 70 yards to reach the end zone. So Ryan Tannehill threw short, and the laterals began. In the end, there was Gronkowski, unable to get the right angle on Kenyan Drake in the open field.
Fast-forward to Sunday. With the score tied, and the Patriots on their own 45-yard line, they decided to hand the ball off. Why? According to Bill Belichick, it was because a throw would not reach the end zone.
We can just leave that there for a moment, and move on.
Despite that, the Raiders were prepared for a Hail Mary. Look at the alignment presnap:
The Raiders are ready for a Hail Mary. They have just three defenders on the line of scrimmage, and then two more within five yards. The other six are at least 15 yards off the ball, with one defender near the end zone.
Even an official is near the ten-yard line, waiting for the Hail Mary.
But, if you do not think a throw is going to get there, running against this look and seeing if you can break something into the open field is a defensible proposition. They indeed run the ball, and Rhamondre Stevenson breaks into the secondary.
Now, let’s stop here:
This is when Stevenson pitches to Jakobi Meyers. Now is when things are starting to unravel. Remember. This is a tie game. If Stevenson breaks into the open field and is deep into Raiders territory, a pitch here is understandable. But Stevenson has yet to reach the 30-yard line. Now we’re on shakier ground.
But, he pitches to Meyers, the former quarterback. Who, well, runs backwards.
To his own 40-yard line.
And then does this:
This is not the moment to channel your inner Derek Jeter. We’re being kind. Coach 30 is going to be a bit meaner. Because your intended target is Mac Jones.
Yes, that Mac Jones.
When Mac Jones is the answer, the question should not be “what player on the field is most likely to take the ball 60 yards to the house?” Because every other player on the Patriots is downfield from him! He will need to advance the ball either on his own, or get far enough upfield to be able to even pitch it to a teammate. Mac Jones was put on this planet to throw footballs, not to break ankles in the open field.
I’m going to tap JP back in, because I’m feeling woozy again.
Alright so just like Mark said, there is a very fine and reasonable way that this play could end for the Pats. Stevenson or Meyers goes down and they move on to overtime.
HOWEVER, Stevenson laterals it to Meyers, and for a split second Meyers sees a flash. A white glimmer of hope to run this ball into the end zone:
Mac freakin’ Jones.
Jones isn’t a statue by any means, but he’s not a guy who you intentionally lateral the ball back to in a last gasp effort to win a football game. He should be the middle man, distributing the ball and getting out of the way.
And then there’s this:
Here it is in GIF form, if you’re into that:
Mac Jones didn’t just get stiff armed, no.
He got crushed.
He was destroyed.
Mac Jones got deleted from the server, without saving the game.
Mac Jones got forcefully pushed into the Earth’s core.
Mac Jones got speed bumped.
Mac Jones got WorldStarred.
You know how many TikTok’s I’ve seen of Mac Jones getting dribbled? It’s dominated my TikTok feed.
There’s some 12-year old Raiders fan who has Mac Jones getting forearm shivered into the turf as his iPhone wallpaper.
There is a teaching lesson in this, however. End of game situations are important, and you can tell which teams practice them and which teams don’t. You can also tell which coaching staffs emphasize end of game play, and which ones jot it down for a two minute portion of their practice with only the finest of No. 2 pencils.
The NFL is all about winning in the margins. Creating small creases to give your team any advantage possible. End of game execution does this. If the Patriots offense knew what they were doing, this game would’ve been in OT.
But no, they created a meme and made my friend and Patriots fan Mark extremely mad. Can’t allow that.
