We’ll be talking about the Las Vegas Raiders’ last-second win over the New England Patriots for years, because of the ill-advised lateral pass thrown by Patriots receiver Jakobi Meyers to quarterback Mac Jones that was intercepted by Raiders (and former Patriots) edge-rusher Chandler Jones for a 48-yard touchdown. That led to a 30-24 loss to the benefit of Raiders head coach (and longtime Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels), and it knocked the 7-7 Patriots out of the playoff race — at least for the time being.
Ridiculous pic.twitter.com/i1wh1rgFFS
— Ethan Hammerman (@Ethanhamm) December 19, 2022
RAIDERS DOTS OH MY GOD pic.twitter.com/xqG2oK2VwC
— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) December 19, 2022
Ouch.
For a team as generally situationally aware as the Patriots are — and especially given Bill Belichick’s obsession with the little things — you’d expect that this has never happened to the team before, at least not under Belichick’s watch.
But the Patriots were on the wrong end of another game-losing lateral play in Week 14 of the 2018 season. This time, they were up 33-28 on the Miami Dolphins as time was running out… and then, this happened.
Absolutely insane final play from the #Dolphins. Kenyan Drake ends up with the second lateral and takes it in for a 69-yard TD to beat the #Patriots 34-33.
Wow. pic.twitter.com/oIEu4tE1w3
— Clint Lamb (@ClintRLamb) December 9, 2018
The Patriots were seconds away from clinching their 10th straight AFC East title, when then-Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill threw a pass to receiver Kenny Stills. Stills lateraled to receiver DeVante Parker, who lateraled to running back Kenyan Drake, who ran the last 52 yards of the 69-yard play for the game-winning touchdown.
Among the Patriots’ defenders in their prevent defense was tight end Rob Gronkowski, out there on the hands team.
“Drake runs a 4.3, and Gronk probably runs a 4.6 or 4.7, so you feel good about that matchup,” Tannehill said after the game.
The Dolphins had repped the play in practice and called it “Boise” after the famous Boise State “Hook and Ladder” play used to defeat Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl.
“They just made one more play than we did,” Belichick concluded after that game.
As did the Raiders, who made at least one more play than the Patriots were ever possibly expecting.
