Aspuria’s Assertions: Patriots Out-Raider-ing The Raiders — It Actually Happened

The laterals

First came the unbelievable series of laterals. That in itself is unfathomable. That’s especially true for a normally disciplined team led by Bill Belichick. The mistake of all mistakes is something that’s more likely to come from Josh McDaniels’ squad. Tell me I’m wrong.

There was no need to even throw the ball around like a hot potato. Well, mostly because the game was tied at 24 apiece. Did they forget that overtime was right there to be played? But the Patriots said FOH to that. What followed was a truly Shakespearean tragedy of events for the New England faithful. All the while, a raucous Raider Nation was treated to the truly tantalizing spectacle of a lateral landing right in the mitts of a waiting Jones, who was only back there because he whiffed on a tackle at the play’s onset. Then came the stiffest of stiff arms that Chandler Jones delivered to his distant cousin Mac Jones before a mad sprint to the end zone to win the football game.

The gaffe was so bad that even Belichick sounded like a jaded McDaniels after his Raiders suffered some embarrassing defeats. “We talk about situational football,” Belichick said. “We talk about it every week, but we obviously have to do a better job playing situational football and not making critical mistakes.”

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

I mean, come on. Not even WWE or AEW script writers could have written a more whimsical ending. I know the NFL owes the Raiders for that Tuck Rule game, but this one, the jubilation Raider Nation felt and the louder they got as Chandler Jones’ approached the end zone for the game-winner as time expired — this takes the cake. That final sequence, along with Raiders wide receiver Keelan Cole being ruled in-bounds for the eventual game-tying 30-yard touchdown the series before the fateful laterals of doom, has to be leaving Patriots fans feeling like the league has diabolical intentions to screw their squad out of a win.

Wasn’t Raiders DC Patrick Graham getting lambasted recently?

(Before I get into the specifics of that play, wasn’t the Raiders’ Patrick Graham lambasted for leaving undrafted free agent cornerback Sam Webb on an island without safety help over the top against the Los Angeles Rams? Is there going to be a similar backlash for Belichick for leaving Marcus Jones on a similar island with no safety help against Cole on that touchdown, or nah?

Replay, still images, and even photos from fans from the game show Cole’s foot eerily close to the white line, indicating out of bounds. Shoot, one picture in particular showed the white paint coming up as his foot was on the line. But, no dice.

It was called a touchdown on the field, and there wasn’t indisputable evidence to overturn the call. I agree with the officials when they say that had it been ruled incomplete, a replay wouldn’t have overturned that call either.

You see that, New England fans? That’s the kind of madness that Raider Nation is used to. That mental lapse is a patented Silver and Black thing, and it’s wild when a well-run organization like the Patriots does it.