All hope seemed lost for the Kansas City Chiefs as their AFC West rivals drove down field to set up a game-winning field goal. Fortunately for Andy Reid and company, the Las Vegas Raiders are their own worst enemy.
Friday gave fans around the NFL a hard-fought battle between the Chiefs and Raiders at Arrowhead Stadium. Las Vegas, who stand as the last team league-wide to beat Kansas City at home, had their eyes set on their second road victory against Patrick Mahomes in two years.
Everything was working in the Raiders’ favor.
Despite tallying four less offensive snaps than the Chiefs, Las Vegas ended their day with 105 more yards and two more first downs. More than that, the Silver and Black managed to take down Mahomes on five different occasions while allowing only three sacks themselves.
It was a game that Sin City had all but wrapped up, until the unthinkable happened.
With under two minutes left in the contest, quarterback Aidan O’Connell trotted out with zero timeouts left while facing a two-point deficit. If the Raiders wanted to walk away victorious, O’Connell would need to be at his best.
And he was.
On 5 passes, O’Connell picked up 55 yards to set his team up at Kansas City’s 32 yard-line. With 28 seconds now left on the clock, all that was left to do was let time tick in order to set up a game-winning field goal as time expired.
However, Antonio Pierce had other ideas.
A shot in the foot: The epitome of the 2024 Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders had what seemed like a sure-fired win in a game where few people thought they stood the slightest chance. Then, in what’s become typical Sin City fashion throughout the season, they shot themselves in the foot.
Instead of spiking the ball with a second or two remaining, Pierce had his team hurry to the line of scrimmage to spike the ball and run another offensive play. 12 seconds remained on the clock at this point.
With O’Connell and company hurrying back to the line of scrimmage, rookie offensive lineman Jackson Powers-Johnson snapped the ball before the offense was set, and an unready Raiders team stood largely confused as Kansas City’s linebacker Nick Bolton dove onto the football to end the game on a play that perfectly summarizes Las Vegas’ season.
In an unlikely turn of events, the Kansas City Chiefs managed to beat their AFC West rivals.
The power of hindsight is one that often ignores all reasoning. If a decision works out, whether by design or luck, it’s categorized as a good decision. However, if it doesn’t, no matter how logical or well-designed a play may be, it’s typically chalked up as a bad choice.
But this isn’t that—there’s simply no coherent explanation for why a head coach would do what Pierce opted to do at the end of Week 13’s ball game, neither before nor after the final result. Pierce’s own explanation proves that true.
Explaining the unexplainable
When asked if the plan was to try gaining a few more yards before attempting a field goal, Pierce wasted no time denying the theory.
“We were going to snap the ball and really just throw the ball out of bounds. Kill four or five more seconds,” the Raiders head coach explained.
This explanation truly highlights the absurdity and level of blatant inexcusableness behind such a thoughtless coaching decision.
If Pierce’s vision was to take four or five seconds off the clock prior to kicking the field goal, he could have done just that without even running an extra play that risked an injury or a game-losing turnover. Thanks to a catch by Ameer Abdullah on a play that left 28 seconds in the game, the clock continued to tick all the way through.
That is, until Pierce had O’Connell spike the ball as soon as possible.
Had Pierce thought it best to take more time off the clock, O’Connell would’ve had no reason to rush to the line to spike the football. In fact, O’Connell could have waited until the final second to snap the ball, ensuring Carlson’s field goal attempt was the final play of the contest.
But Pierce seemingly went out of his way to stop a risk-free finish from transpiring. Worst of all, he had no reason for doing so.
Unfortunately, this is far too common of an occurrence for Pierce.
History repeats itself in second AFC West duel between Las Vegas Raiders, Kansas City Chiefs
During the Raiders first matchup with the Chiefs earlier in the year, Pierce was debatably Kansas City’s most valuable player.
At the end of the first half, with just under two minutes on the clock, Pierce thought it best to simply run the clock and give Mahomes back the ball with little time left. He then learned a lesson each and every other coach in the NFL had already known; giving the ball back to Patrick Mahomes with a minute left isn’t a good idea.
Unsurprisingly, Mahomes led the Chiefs downfield for three before the half concluded.
Pierce’s second-half decisions proved to be just as head-scratching. Although the Raiders scored a touchdown to put them within seven before the two-minute warning came around, it didn’t matter. Since Pierce used up all three of his team’s timeouts beforehand, Sin City had no choice but to attempt an onside kick while on the right side of the two-minute warning.
Chiefs recovered, and in a one-score game with just under two minutes left post-kick, Mahomes kneeled three times as he walked away winning the AFC West duel.
For the Raiders, their miserable self-inflicted season continues; as does their streak of being down double-digits at some point during each and every contest they’ve competed in this season.
The Silver and Black remain their own worst enemy. Antonio Pierce’s efforts have only made sure that continues being the case.
*Top Photo: Darrell Craig Harris, Raiders Today
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