The Raiders were on the verge of upsetting the heavily favored Chiefs, but a botched snap ended their hopes in the closing seconds of Friday night’s game.
— A lot went down in the last 15 seconds of the Las Vegas Raiders’ heartbreaking 19-17 loss at the Kansas City Chiefs on Friday — all of it bad for the Raiders, who dropped their eighth straight game to fall to 2-10 on the season.
Las Vegas was on the verge of upsetting the Chiefs, who were a 13½-point favorite on ESPN Bet. After spiking the ball at the Kansas City 32-yard line with 16 seconds remaining, the Raiders had a third-and-3 and were already well within placekicker Daniel Carlson’s range. Carlson, though, had already missed three field goals on the day, from 56, 55 and 58 yards, respectively.
Still, Raiders coach Antonio Pierce wanted to run one more play — a pass to be thrown away so that Las Vegas, which was out of timeouts, could eat more time off the clock before giving the ball back to the Chiefs and quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Instead, disaster struck for the Raiders.
With the Raiders lined up in shotgun and the play clock at 4 seconds, rookie center Jackson Powers-Johnson — after being tapped by right guard Dylan Parham — snapped the ball to an unaware Aidan O’Connell, the ball bouncing off the quarterback’s upper right arm.
Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton recovered the fumble — and that’s when confusion ensued.
Flags flew, and at least one official signaled a false start, which would have nullified the play and maintained possession for the Raiders. Still, they would have lost 5 yards, making it third-and-8 with no timeouts and a potential 55-yard field-goal attempt.
