Late in Saturday’s game, the Raiders had the ball at the 1-yard line and the Dolphins were poised to let them score a touchdown, but Raiders coach Jon Gruden directed Derek Carr to take a knee to run the maximum time off the clock before kicking a field goal and taking a 25-23 lead. That gave the Dolphins the ball back with 19 seconds left, and the Dolphins immediately got into range for a game-winning field goal of their own to win 26-25.
After the game, Gruden said he didn’t regret taking a knee instead of scoring the touchdown.
“I don’t regret it,” Gruden said. “I don’t regret it one bit. I just regret the results. . . . 19 seconds left, on your own 25-yard line, with no timeouts, I’ve called plays a long time, the probability of getting that done is remote. . . . I’m not going to get into all the scenarios. We played it exactly like we wanted to play it.”
But while the probability is remote, Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Dolphins did get it done, with Fitzpatrick finding an open receiver while getting facemasked, and the completion and 15-yard penalty putting the Dolphins into field goal range. If the Raiders had scored a touchdown instead of a field goal, the Dolphins would have had more time, but they would have had to get all the way to the end zone, not just into field goal range.
No one will ever be able to say for certain whether the Dolphins would have scored a game-winning touchdown, but it would have been a lot harder for them than it was to score the game-winning field goal, which they did without much trouble, ending the Raiders’ season.