The Raiders scored one of the most improbable touchdowns in NFL history at the end of Sunday’s game against the Patriots.
With no time left on the clock, Patriots wide receiver Jakobi Meyers tried a long backward pass to quarterback Mac Jones instead of going out of bounds and sending the game to overtime. The pass was picked off by Raiders defensive end Chandler Jones, who explained to Peter King what happened next for this week’s Football Morning in America.
“Instead of pursuing the ball, I just started playing back into saying, alright who’s the next passer? Who could they possibly throw it to next that’s behind the line of scrimmage? Because they’re playing this whole hot potato game,” Jones said. “Sure enough, I saw Jakobi Meyers kinda look back at Mac Jones, the quarterback. He was standing in the middle of the field. 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. I literally just jumped up and intercepted it. I just gave Mac a nice stiff arm with my right hand. The rest was history.”
That underplays things a bit since Chandler Jones planted Mac Jones in the turf like he was an explorer claiming territory before racing to the end zone to give his team a win after they blew yet another big second half lead. Chandler Jones used to play for the Patriots, which made the play even more enjoyable for him.
“When you play against a former team, you never really want to speak about it but you always have that in your mind: ‘I’ve got to get this team,’” Jones said, via Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com. “So, it does feel a little good. I’ll do a little silent brag there. It felt good. Yeah.”
The touchdown will almost certainly go down as the most memorable moment of the 2022 season in Las Vegas as well as one of the most memorable in the entire league.
