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The NFL is still in the process of taking its collective jaw off the floor in response to New England’s last-second loss to the Raiders. The decision by Rhamondre Stevenson to lateral the ball to Jakobi Meyers and then for Meyers to chuck it into the arms of Chandler Jones, who took it to the house for a Las Vegas win, has been a point of discussion all week across the league. One notable figure that knows a thing or two about New England’s operation that shared his thoughts on the last-second gaffe was former Patriots and current Bucs quarterback Tom Brady. On his “Let’s Go!” podcast, the Pats great spoke of this most recent loss and recalled an instance when he was on the other side of a lateral back in 2018 in New England’s infamous “Miami Miracle” loss. “That was crazy and I was part of the one in Miami in [2018] when we lost at Miami on the Miami Miracle,” Brady said on the podcast. “It was just so improbable for that to happen. I saw that highlight as I was driving home from the game yesterday. It’s just sports, man. You never know. You never know. Anything can happen. … It’s just a crazy game. I saw Rhamondre [Stevenson] got the ball and it was a great run. I’m sure the Raiders at that point were like, ‘tackle him, tackle him.’ Then they pitched it to Jakobi and Jakobi’s trying to make it happen.
“Then next thing you know, Jakobi got it and in that moment, you might lose your train of thought because you lose what’s really going on in that situation,” he continued. “You think, ‘Oh, someone tossed me the ball, I have to make a play.’ Sometimes that’s the worst thing when you say, ‘I’ve got to make a play. I’ve got to make a play.’ The play was obviously to go to overtime. That’s sports. It goes from ‘Oh my god, tackle that guy’ to ‘Oh my god, we got the ball’ and then the Patriots are saying ‘Tackle that guy’ and they couldn’t get him on the ground.”As Brady noted, the play should have been to go for overtime as the score was knotted at 24 apiece. Stevenson noted this week that the plan was for the team to simply run out the clock, but admitted that he and Meyers freelanced in the final seconds, which ultimately proved to be their undoing.
This loss pushed New England to 7-7 on the season and outside the playoff picture. Had the Patriots hung on to win, they would have remained the No. 7 seed in the AFC. Now, Bill Belichick’s club will need some serious help if they want to reach the postseason.