Las Vegas Raiders hero Chandler Jones expected the New England Patriots would go for the end zone on what became a miraculous final play of Sunday’s game.
“It was a desperado situation,” Jones told NBC Sports’ Peter King, “and that was a team that would try to do anything to advance the ball for a touchdown. They’ll throw the ball, pitch it, and lateral it. I knew that was a possibility to happen. I thought they would do a hook-and-lateral or something like that. They had a random run. I actually missed a tackle on [running back Rhamondre Stevenson]. I went to go punch the ball out on that play and I missed. The guy kept running. By the time I stood up, I realized that the ball was being pitched around.”
With the score tied 24-24 and three seconds left on the clock, Patriots quarterback Mac Jones handed the football to Stevenson seemingly to get the visitors into overtime. Stevenson then curiously lateraled the ball to Jakobi Meyers, who attempted a pass back to Mac Jones.
Chandler Jones read the play the whole way.
“He was standing in the middle of the field,” Chandler said of Mac. “I literally just jumped up when I saw the ball coming, intended for Mac. Mac was kind of standing there, looking at me with big eyes.”
Chandler picked the ball off, hit a vicious stiff-arm on Mac, and completed a run untouched into the end zone for an improbable 30-24 win that improved the Raiders to 6-8. Meanwhile, the Patriots fell to 7-7.
