Patriots

How Patriots players, coaches reacted to a stunning loss against the Raiders

Reactions from Mac Jones, Jakobi Meyers, and Bill Belichick.

December 18, 2022

The final throw of New England’s 30-24 loss to Las Vegas came from Jakobi Meyers, not Mac Jones.

Rhamondre Stevenson lateraled the ball back to Meyers as time expired, trying to keep the play alive as the Patriots attempted to break a 24-24 tie on the final play.

Meyers tried to throw the ball to Jones, but former Patriots defensive lineman Chandler Jones intercepted it and rumbled 48-yards for the game-winning score.

“I was trying to do too much, trying to be a hero I guess,” Meyers said. ” I didn’t see dude back there … I should have just went down with the ball.”

Patriots coach Bill Belichick agreed that Meyers should gone down and ended the play before throwing the ball.

“Well, obviously that would have been better than the result,” Belichick said. “Look, we talk about situational football every week. Obviously we’ve got to do a better job playing situational football and not making critical mistakes in the game.”

Meyers wasn’t the only Patriots player who tried to take accountability in the postgame press conference. Quarterback Mac Jones was the last player between Chandler Jones and the end zone.

Jakobi Meyers said the plan was to run the ball and go into overtime. Said he was ‘trying to be a hero.’

“I thought I saw Mac Jones open.” pic.twitter.com/tUEudAAjEa
— Mark Daniels (@MarkDanielsPJ) December 19, 2022

“I think Jakobi is one of the best teammates I’ve ever had,” Mac Jones said. “He’s a fighter and he does everything he can to help the team. Obviously you have to ask coach about it and see what our plan was. But, at the end of the day, the guy is out there fighting and trying to win the game. There’s a lot of things I could have done better in the game.”

Stevenson began the play by fighting to keep it alive and flipping the ball to Meyers. He said after the game that the play should have ended even earlier with him.

“I think coach gave us a play to run the time out and just get down,” Stevenson said. “There were only a couple seconds left on the clock. I should have done just that and gone down.”