Bill Belichick didn’t take much time clarifying why he said Mac Jones “couldn’t throw it that far” in regards why the New England Patriots didn’t attempt a “Hail Mary” on the final play in the shocking loss to the Las Vegas Raiders.
In a 24-24 game with three seconds left, the Patriots called a draw play with Rhamondre Stevenson instead, and the running back lateraled the ball back to Jakobi Meyers. The craziness ensued after Meyers touched the ball, as the wide receiver inexplicably threw a 12-yard pass back to Jones — only the Raiders’ Chandler Jones was there to pick off the backwards pass and take it 48 yards for the winning touchdown.
This was a colossal mistake by Belichick in a season full of them. The Patriots coach stood his ground that 55 yards was too far to throw a pass for Jones to reach the end one.
“I said it was too far,” Belichick said on WEEI’s”The Greg Hill Show” Monday. “It’s too far to throw that play in that situation.”
Belichick didn’t put blame on Stevenson or Meyers for what happened on the final play of the game, or that it dropped the Patriots out of the wild card standings.
“I’ve never coached in a game where you weren’t coaching, making corrections and mistakes after the game on all levels, playing, coaching, everything, decision making, overall strategy, everything,” Belichick said to reporters early Monday morning. “That’s a part of every game, every review. I’ve never coached in a game where you didn’t have that.
“Then there are also things that you are positive that you look at that you want to try to build on. I think those elements occur in every game. I’ve never been in one that didn’t have both.”
What did happen on the final play of the game? Belichick gave basically the same answer on two different fronts, to reporters and to WEEI.
“Obviously the play didn’t turn out anywhere close that we wanted it to,” Belichick said. “So I’ll just leave it at that.”